IUCN 2023 update

DesertRhino150

DesertRhino150

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
The most recent update to the IUCN Red List has happened today. These are some of the things that I have noticed:

There has been some good news among the mammals:
  • Scimitar-horned oryx has been moved from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered
  • Saiga has been moved from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened
  • Mediterranean monk seal has moved from Endangered to Vulnerable
Unfortunately, the Russian desman is less lucky, having moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered.

Among the birds:
  • Swan goose and great bustard have moved from Vulnerable to Endangered
  • Germain's peacock-pheasant and Mrs Hume's pheasants have moved from Near Threatened to Vulnerable
  • Palm cockatoo has moved from Least Concern to Near Threatened
  • Helmeted curassow has moved from Endangered to Vulnerable
  • Mountain peacock-pheasant and lesser adjutant have moved from Vulnerable to Near Threatened
The main change I noted among the reptiles is that the false gharial has moved from Vulnerable up to Endangered.

Among amphibians, there have been a few splits among the cane toads and poison-dart frogs, but the main thing I noticed were a few updates to the European amphibians, including:
  • Both the marbled newt and common fire salamander have moved from Least Concern up to Vulnerable
Plenty more updates have happened with the bony fish - the main thing I noticed was that the Atlantic salmon has moved up from Least Concern to Near Threatened. Lots of South American aquarium fish (cardinal, neon, rummynose and false rummynose tetras and angelfish, for example) have all been newly assessed, but are listed as Least Concern.

There have also been quite a lot of changes among the insects and spiders, plus a few for cartilaginous fishes and other groups of invertebrates, but for the most part I am unaware of what actual changes in status have happened.
 
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The European amphibian assessments included here paint a pretty grim picture of declines due to Bsal- marbled newt, Italian crested newt and fire salamander all moved up to Vulnerable. Grim news of further extinctions and declines in neotropical amphibians too.

The first of the Chinese giant salamander splits has been assessed- Andrias sligoi is now listed, unsurprisingly, as CR.

In the cases you mention, it should be noted the curassow and mountain peacock pheasant have been downlisted due to new population estimates that are higher than previously believed- both are still thought to be declining. The adjutant is a genuine recovery, as is the Millerbird's downlisting from CR to EN.

The newly described Principe scops-owl is assessed as CR, and the likewise new Wangi-wangi white-eye is assessed as EN.

The Hawaiian lobelioid Brighamia insignis, previously assessed as Critically Endangered, possibly Extinct in the Wild, is now formally Extinct in the Wild.

Northeast African Cheetah ssp. soemmeringii has been assessed as Endangered

As you say, many South American freshwater fish assessments- the bulk of them LC, but some threatened and a worrying number Data Deficient.

Borneo's elusive/extinct Dulit partridge has been moved from Vulnerable to Data Deficient, due to paucity of records and uncertainty of geographical limits.

I had heard rumours of a California condor downlisting to EN in the works, but evidently not in this round of assessments.
 
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I checked the Panay Cloudrunner, and it seems not to have been re-assessed this time round; as such the heavily outdated and overly positive 2016 listing (complete with claims of a large captive population) remains standing.
 
Great Argus said:
Full table of the IUCN 2023 changes here (direct PDF link): https://nc.iucnredlist.org/redlist/content/attachment_files/2023-1_RL_Table_7.pdf

Update is very amphibian heavy, not much to say in mammals, reptiles, and cartiliaginous fish.
Click to expand...
Bear in mind this is just the changes from previous versions- so species assessed for the first time, or reassessed but not changed category, are not included.

With those, the update would be even more amphibian & fish heavy.
 
I hope that the ones uplisted have conservation projects to help them. Right whales wer uplisted from endangered to critically endangered. While if you look on the news, monarchs got down listed which brings we temparory relief.
 
Here where I live I've noticed Monarch populations vary wildly from year to year. One summer Monarch will be the most common butterfly and the next summer I'll only see a handful the entire season. I have no idea what triggers there changes and there seems to be no pattern (not that I can surmise at least).
 
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