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Humans have wiped out between a quarter and a third of the world's wildlife in 35 years, according to the latest Living Planet Index.
The index, compiled by the Zoological Society of London in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), found that populations of land-based species fell by 25 percent, marine life by 28 percent, and freshwater creatures by 29 percent between 1970 and 2005.
The authors of the report said humans are eradicating some one percent of all other species each and every year, saying "one of the great extinction episodes in the Earth's history is under way".
The researchers placed the blame on pollution, farming, urban expansion, over-fishing and hunting.
The BBC reports that the Living Planet Index tracks some 1,400 species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles through scientific publications and online databases.
Some of the hardest hit animals identified in the report were ocean birds, whose numbers have plummeted by 30 percent since the mid 1990s, while land-based birds have not fared much better, with populations declining by a quarter.
The findings were released ahead of a meeting of the Convention on Biodiversity, which was established n 1992 to stabilise the loss of species.
The WWF has called on governments who are meeting for the convention in in Bonn, Germany, to honour their commitments to implement effective wildlife protection areas, as well as adopting a target of net annual zero deforestation by 2020.
(c) NewsRoom 2008
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