World animal population declined by 52% –report

MOSCOW: Populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish on the planet have declined by 52 percent since 1970, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Living Planet Report 2014.

“The Living Planet Index (LPI), which measures trends in thousands of vertebrate species populations, shows a decline of 52 per cent between 1970 and 2010. In other words, the number of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish across the globe is, on average, about half the size it was 40 years ago,” the report said.