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Conservation action has prevented the global extinction of at least 28 bird and mammal species since 1993, according to a study led by Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and BirdLife International. Colorado State University’s Sarah King, research scientist in the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, is a co-author of the study, published September 10 in Conservation Letters.
The international team of scientists estimated that up to 32 bird and 16 mammal species would have disappeared forever without conservation efforts in recent decades. The species highlighted include Przewalski’s horse, Iberian lynx and the Black stilt, a wading bird found in New Zealand, among others.
King, who has been studying the Przewalski’s horse for 20 years, described the animal as prehistoric and similar to horses portrayed in ancient cave paintings. The horses went extinct in the wild in the 1960s.
In the 1990s, conservationists began reintroduction efforts and in 1996, the first Przewalski’s horse was born in the wild. Now, more than 760 of these horses are roaming the steppes of Mongolia once again.