Nature's 'ugly ducklings' teetering on the edge of extinction

A tiny bushbaby with over-sized ears and an almost blind dolphin that swims upside down have joined a list of the most unusual and important mammals that are teetering on the edge of extinction.

British scientists compiled the list after identifying endangered mammals with the fewest living relatives, making them profoundly valuable for the world's biodiversity.

The creatures are among the forgotten fauna that are confined to precious few habitats and are feared to be steadily dying out, while receiving little or no attention from conservationists.

Led by the Zoological Society of London, the list of 100 evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (Edge) species of mammals aims to highlight nature's ugly ducklings that struggle to compete with the poster boys of conservation and are most in need of protection.

"These species are not only seriously threatened, they have the fewest living relatives and so represent an extraordinary amount of evolutionary diversity. Losing a high-rank species from this list can have an enormous impact on diversity," Craig Turner, a conservation biologist at ZSL, said.

The latest version of the list, which is published today, adds eight species that were not included when it was first drawn up two years ago. Then, the Yangtze river dolphin topped the list, but is now thought to have gone extinct.

Three species of long-beaked echidna, which live in New Guinea and have light-brown, spiny coats, now rank equal first on the list. Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, one of the most primitive mammals on the planet, was presumed extinct until it was spotted by ZSL researchers in 2007. Alongside platypuses, echidnas are the only mammals that lay eggs like a reptile.

One mammal that joins the list is the saola, or "Asian unicorn", which lives in the Annamite mountains of Laos and Vietnam. The antelope-like animal was unknown to western science until 1992, and a confirmed sighting in Laos in August this year was the first in more than 10 years.

Villagers in a province in central Laos captured an adult male saola, but the animal died from the ordeal days after a team of experts arrived to examine it. The saola is critically endangered and probably only a few hundred exist.

The Chinese pangolin, which resembles an anteater covered with scales made from fused hair, also joins the list. The creature has powerful claws and nearly a half-metre-long tongue that it uses to raid termite and ant nests. The population is under threat as the animals are hunted for their meat, which is considered a delicacy, and their skin and scales, which are used in traditional medicine.

Dams and irrigation projects have damaged the habitat of the Ganges river dolphin, the last descendant of one of the oldest groups of long-beaked dolphins that lived in the world's oceans millions of years ago. The dolphin has an unusual, thin beak and is almost completely blind. It swims on its side and upside down and uses its fins to find food on the river bed.

Several other species added to the list include the pygmy three-toed sloth, the smallest and most threatened of all sloth species, which lives on a single island off the coast of Panama; the Asian tapir; and the Rondo dwarf galago, the smallest kind of bushbaby, which lives in only seven highly threatened patches of forest in Tanzania. The black and white ruffed lemur of Madagascar, which helps the island's Traveller's tree reproduce by getting covered in pollen when it sips nectar from the tree's flowers, joins the list too.

"There are mammals across the world requiring conservation attention, but Edge species must be our top priority," said Turner. "Variety is truly the spice of life when it comes to the natural world and if we fail to preserve this variety, we are threatening our very own existence."

Ian Sample, science correspondent guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/19/nature-ugly-mammals-extinction