By Helen
BriggsBBC News
19
September 2017
The
biggest and the smallest of the world's animals are most at risk of dying out,
according to a new analysis.
Size
matters when it comes to extinction risk, with vertebrates in the so-called
"Goldilocks zone" - not too big and not too small - winning out, say
scientists.
Action is
needed to protect animals at both ends of the scale, they say.
Heavyweights
are threatened mainly by hunting, while featherweights are losing out to
pollution and logging.
"The
largest vertebrates are mostly threatened by direct killing by humans,"
said a team led by Prof Bill Ripple of Oregon State University in Corvallis,
US.
"Whereas
the smallest species are more likely to have restricted geographic ranges - an
important predictor of extinction risk - and be threatened by habitat
degradation."
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