The big question: Delegates - a species far from extinction

Q. One of the jobs facing Earth Summit delegates is to save the world's threatened species. How many of the 65,000 delegates would it take to save each one?

A. About six delegates for each of the world's 11,046 threatened animal and plant species.

To save the 5485 threatened animals only would take 12 delegates an animal.

It would take 70 delegates to save the critically endangered animals - there are 925 of them.

To save the world's critically endangered mammals would take 361 delegates each - 180 are in that category.

On the delegates' job list would be the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), of which fewer than 400 survive in the highlands of Ethiopia and northeast Africa.

Critically endangered plants include mandrinette (Hibiscus fragilis), unique to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Only 46 mature plants are left.

Another threatened species is the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans), one of 16 species of albatross identified as threatened.

* Figures taken from the International Union for Conservation redlist of threatened species, 2000.

* Do you have a burning question about our world and beyond? Send us your Big Question

Earth Summit 2002

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species


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