THE world’s mammals are in crisis, with about 1 in 5 species threatened with extinction. That is the bleak headline news from the latest revision of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, released on 6 October.
But one bright spot in this gloomy picture is that biologists have acquired a powerful new tool for discovering whether other groups of plants and animals are faring any better. Called the Sampled Red List Index, it provides a snapshot of the conservation status of groups of animals or plants – much as financial indices such as the Dow Jones allow investors to…
