World wildlife falls by 58% in 40 years

The Living Planet assessment, by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, suggests that if the trend continues that decline could reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020.

The figures suggest that animals living in lakes, rivers and wetlands are suffering the biggest losses.  Human activity, including habitat loss, wildlife trade, pollution and climate change contributed to the declines.

However the methodology of the report has been criticized.  It nay be skewed to species for which much is known.  Other species [in the ocean, say] may be under-represented and the fear is, those may be doing worse than the species that made up this study.       …read the BBC report…