JOHANNESBURG: Mexico's volcano rabbit and monkey-faced bats in Fiji are among 794 species at 595 sites facing imminent extinction but protecting the remaining scraps of their habitat could save them, according to a new study.
A 52-member Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) conducted the study. The study found that just one-third of the 595 sites has legal protection, and most are surrounded by human population densities that are thrice the global average.
It said large concentrations of such sites were to be found in the Andes of South America, in Brazil's Atlantic Forests, throughout the Caribbean, and in Madagascar.
The US is also home to many of the pinpointed sites. Mexico's rare volcano rabbit - restricted to the slopes of four volcanoes in the country's remote interior - is one of the species at greatest risk.
The imminent extinction list includes the Bloody Bay poison frog of Trinidad and Tobago, the monkey-faced bat of Fiji, a spatuletail, a hummingbird limited to one Peruvian valley.
