The pulse
What moved, and when
There is no honest daily extinction clock. IUCN version 2026-1 is a ledger of assessments, not a live feed of last breaths. Status changes arrive in batches. Extinctions are often confirmed a decade after the last sighting. Still Here surfaces the public record so it does not only live in a PDF.
45% of migratory birds are now in decline
BirdLife’s State of the World’s Birds, released at the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi. One in nine bird species is threatened. Wetlands, seas, and forests are the common denominator.
Source: BirdLife International
IUCN Red List 2026-1: 49,505 species threatened
175,909 species assessed. 49,505 in CR, EN, or VU. Amphibians remain the most threatened vertebrate class at roughly 41%. This is a barometer, not a complete inventory — only about 8% of described species have been assessed.
Source: IUCN Red List 2026-1
Cotton-top tamarins: dry forest at 8%, monkeys still on the edge
Proyecto Tití’s next census is pending. The last count put wild numbers under 7,500. Northern Colombia’s tropical dry forest — the only home they have — is a remnant. Former loggers are planting it back.
Source: The Guardian / Proyecto Tití
Vaquita survey: still here, still in the nets’ shadow
Joint visual and acoustic work in September 2025 found at least 7–10 vaquitas in the refuge, including one and possibly two calves. The free-fall of the 2010s has slowed. Gillnets outside the zone have not gone away.
Source: IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group
Slender-billed curlew declared extinct
BirdLife and IUCN confirmed the first global bird extinction in mainland Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries. Last photograph: a Moroccan lagoon, February 1995. Thirty years of searching did not find another.
Source: BirdLife International / IUCN
Kākāpō flock passes 240
A national recovery program where every bird has a name. Still Critically Endangered. Still the proof that showing up nightly changes the count.
Source: New Zealand Department of Conservation
Iberian lynx: Endangered → Vulnerable
From 62 mature animals in 2001 to more than 2,000 total. Reintroductions, rabbit recovery, and two decades of unglamorous field work. IUCN moved the listing because the numbers moved.
Source: IUCN Red List
Saola: still no confirmed field sighting by a biologist
Camera traps and snare-removal teams keep working the Annamites. The species was new to science in 1992 and may leave it without a second act.
Source: Saola Working Group
African forest elephant listed Critically Endangered
Split from the savanna elephant and placed in CR after an estimated 86% decline in 31 years. Ivory and roads. The Congo forest loses its gardener.
Source: IUCN
Bramble Cay melomys: first climate-driven mammal extinction
A rodent on a coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef. Storms and rising water took the vegetation, then the animal. Last seen 2009. Declared extinct by Australia in 2019.
Source: Australian Government / IUCN
Mountain gorilla: Critically Endangered → Endangered
The only great ape whose numbers are rising. Tourism permits paid for rangers. The listing eased. The work did not.
Source: IUCN
Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, died
Two females remain. Assisted reproduction is the entire plan. Wild recovery is no longer on the table.
Source: Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Snow leopard: Endangered → Vulnerable
Better counts, not a recovered mountain. IUCN moved the cat to VU while noting ongoing decline in parts of the range. Read the trend, not just the letters.
Source: IUCN
Giant panda: Endangered → Vulnerable
Reserve expansion in China produced a slow climb. Still a specialist on a climate-sensitive plant. A downlisting is a pause, not a parade.
Source: IUCN
Western black rhino declared extinct
Surveys in Cameroon found none. A subspecies of black rhino, hunted out. The other black rhinos continue. This lineage does not.
Source: IUCN