By Agence France-Presse Land mammals and reptiles in the Pacific islands facing extinction due to habitat loss, hunting and other threats could be decimated by climate change, a study published Thursday said. Ocean-bound wildlife is particularly vulnerable to environmental pressures, especially endemic species living on only one or a handful of islands. Among other things, this remoteness makes migrating to another land mass nearly impossible. Dozens of species — especially birds — have also been wiped out over the last century by invasive species and disease brought by human settlers. For most Pacific island vertebrates — animals with a backbone — the current risk of extinction has been measured and catalogued in the Red List of threatened species, maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Scientists, however, had not systematically looked at the added threat posed of rising seas and megastorms brought on by global warming. Impacts due to an increase in temperature of only one degree Celsius (1.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid-19th century have already begun to wreak havoc in dozens of small island nations. Lalit Kumar and Mahyat Shafapour Tehrany of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, matched the Red List… Read full this story
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