Wildlife halved in 40 years, report warns

Wildlife populations around the world have more than halved in just four decades in the face of unsustainable human consumption, a report has warned.

Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined on average by 52% from 1970 to 2010, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report, which uses information on 10,380 populations of 3,038 species to see how global wildlife is faring.

Experts from the Zoological Society of London, which maintains the database of information on the species, said the figures meant that where in 1970 there was a population of 100 animals, now there were only 50.