Threatened species total 'hugely underestimated'
The true number of species at risk of extinction could be 50% higher than the total shown on the International Conservation Union’s Red List, according to a bleak new assessment. That is because existing estimates fail to take into account many species, such as parasites and beetles, that depend for their survival on animals and plants that are recognised as threatened, says the team, led by Lian Pin Koh at the National University of Singapore and Robert Dunn at Curtin University, US.