The Atlas of Endangered Species
Third edition - Written by Richard Mackay, printed by Earthscan.120 pages of information about the who, what, where, how long and why of the worlds endangered species.
If you want to know the facts about where the most endangered species live, who imports and exports the most wildlife, which countries have the highest and lowest biodiversity ratings or where the world's biodiversity hotspots are, then this is just the book for you (Extremely useful for journalists and writers, but quite worrying when you read some of the stats.).
Threatened whales - You couldn't make it up.
It is with great irony that we note that, after the USA and Canada, with 9 species each, the next countries in the "number of endangered species of whale sand dolphins" league include Japan and Norway, with 7 each.
Import trade
A particular bug bear of Wildlife Extra. Why do we allow hundreds of thousands of animals, birds, plants and fish to be shipped around the world for the pet trade while there is a biodiversity crisis?
• Snakes and lizards. Last figures available (2002) 370,000 snakes and 1,150,000 lizards were exported legally (plus a huge unknown illegal trade), and show that some 66% of the snakes and lizards from around the world are imported into the USA purely for the pet trade. Neary 60% of lizards came from El Salvador (El Salvador also exports the most tortoises!), and 17% from Colombia, whilst 68% of snakes came from Ghana, Togo & Benin.
• Parrots. Italy is the worst offender importing 9% of parrots, out of a total of 385,600. 30% of these came from South Africa.
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