Forty two species recommended for addition to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals have recommended that 42 additional species be included on Appendix I and/or II of the convention, ahead of the next UN Conference to Advance Global Conservation of Migratory Wildlife and Their Habitats, to be held in Campo Grande, Brazil, on 23-29 March 2026, according to a press release issued on 18 December 2025.

In order to be listed as under Appendix I of the convention, a species must be migratory, or wide ranging, and officially determined to be endangered. To be listed under Appendix II, it must be established that international cooperation is needed to protect that species. Countries which are parties to the convention are obliged to prioritise protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them.

Two species of terrestrial Mammal are proposed for inclusion. The Striped Hyena, Hyaena hyaena, a wide ranging species found across much of Africa and Asia. This species now has a global population of less than 10 000 mature individuals, and its habitat is highly fragmented, and shrinking in many places, due to agriculture, urbanisation and infrastructure development, as well as declines in many large carnivore species, which reduce the availability of the carrion which forms an important part of the species diet, and conflicts with Humans driven by shifting livestock farming practices, hunting, and the illegal wildlife trade. 

The current global distribution of the Striped Hyena, Hyaena hyaena. ICUN Red List of Threatened Species.

Also proposed is the addition of Cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, populations in Zimbabwe to Appendix I of the convention; Cheetahs were also found across much of Africa and Asia, and is threatened by habitat fragmentation and loss, as well as hunting and capture for the illegal wildlife trade. The species is currently protected under the convention across its range, with the exception of Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, where it had been thought to be faring better. However, the Zimbabwean population has undergone a 90% decrease in population in 15 years, and the Government of Zimbabwe has proposed that its Cheetah population be added to the convention.

A Cheetah imaged by a camera-trap set by the Painted Dog Research Trust in Zimbabwe. Sibanda (2023).

A single species of aquatic Mammal, the Giant Otter, Pteronura brasiliensis, has also been proposed for inclusion on the list. This species is found in lowland wetlands and coastal regions of much of South America, but is threatened by habitat loss across much of its range, and is believed to have suffered a 50% population loss in the 25 years to 2014, with predictions suggesting that it will continue to decline at the same rate. 

A Giant Otter, Pteronura brasiliensis, foragingin the Piquiri River in Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Bernard Dupont/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.

Thirty two new species of Birds have been proposed for inclusion on Appendixes I and/or II of the Convention. The most notable of these is the  Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus, a charismatic species commonly represented in popular culture, which is estimated to have lost a third of its population in the last three decades, and which has was declared regionally extinct in Sweden by BirdLife International this year.

A Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus, in flight. Bert de Tilly/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.

The other Bird species proposed are the Flesh-footed Shearwater, Ardenna carneipes, the Hudsonian Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus hudsonicus, the Hudsonian Godwit, Limosa haemastica, the Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes, the Iberá Seedeater, Sporophila iberaensis, and all 25 species of Gadfly Petrels, Pterodroma spp. and Pseudobulweria spp.

A Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.

Eight species of Shark and Fish are also proposed for inclusion on Appendixes I and/or II of the Convention. These are the Pelagic Thresher Shark, Alopias pelagicus, the Bigeye Thresher Shark, Alopias superciliosus, the Common Thresher Shark, Alopias vulpinus, the Patagonian Narrownose Smoothhound, Mustelus schmitti, the Scalloped Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna lewini, the Great Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna mokarran, the Angular Angelshark, Squatina guggenheim, and the Spotted Sorubim, Pseudoplatystoma corruscans, a migratory Catfish from the rivers of tropical South America, threatened by overfishing and habitat fragmentation.

Two Thresher Sharks over a Coral reef off the island of Malapascua in the Philippines. Dani Escayola/Ocean Image Bank/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.

The Great Hammerhead Shark is typical of the Shark species proposed for protection under the Convention. It is found in coastal tropical and subtropical water around the world, but has been heavily overfished for the value of its meat, and in particular its fins, and even when not actively targeted by fishermen, is a common bycatch from other fisheries. As a top predator, its disappearance can trigger a cascade of ecological effects, profoundly altering the ecosystems where it is lost.

One taxon has also been proposed for removal from Appendix I of the convention, the Bukhara Deer, Cervus elaphus yarkandensis, a subspecies of Red Deer, which was reduced to about 400 species in 1999, but which has since undergone a significant recovery due to conservation efforts, and is no longer considered to be threatened.

A group of Bukhara Deer. Natalya Marmazinskaya/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.

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Necrosyrtes monachus: Mass death of Hooded Vultures reported in The Gambia.

A mass death event affecting Hooded Vultures, Necrosyrtes monachus, has occurred in the town of Gunjur, in Kombo South District, The Gambia, according to the West African Bird Study Association. The association was contacted by local residents at 11.00  am local time on Thursday 3 July 2025, by local residents concerned by the sight of a large number of dead and dying Birds. When a team of researchers led by Fagimba Camara arrived at the site, they found 23 dead Vultures and a 24th in a sick and distressed condition.

A researcher from the West African Bird Study Association collecting dead Hooded Vultures, Necrosyrtes monachus, in Gunjur, The Gambia, following a mass death event on Thursday 3 July 2025. West African Bird Study Association.

Hooded Vultures are classed as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. There are thought to be around 131 000 adult Hooded Vultures alive, spread across 45 African countries. However, the species is estimated to have suffered a 68% population decline in three generations, and sudden population collapses have been recorded in several countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Botswana, and illegal killings of Birds have been recorded in several countries, including Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso, and The Gambia.

The current distribution and conservation status of the Hooded Vulture, Necrosyrtes monachus. International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The researchers from the West African Bird Study Association have collected samples from the Gunjur Vultures for analysis, but it is thought most likely that the Birds have died as a result of poisoning. This is the most common cause of mass deaths among Vultures, not because they are targeted themselves, but because they will eat both bait put out for large predators which target livestock (itself an illegal activity in almost all countries), as well as the bodies of other Animals which have been poisoned, intentionally or otherwise.

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Asio otus: A Long-eared Owl spotted in Abu Dhabi for the first time in over two decades.

Nine species of Owls have been recorded in the United Arab Emirates, although only six of these are considered to by indigenous. Long-eared Owls, Asio otus, are a migratory species found across temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. In the Middle East they have been recorded to breed in northernmost Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and the northwestern part of Iran. They are also occasional visitors to other parts of the region, including the United Arab Emirates, where they are considered to be vagrant and extremely rare. Between 1971 and 2013, there were sixteen recorded sightings of Long-eared Owls in the United Arab Emirates, although the species has not been recorded since.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 May 2025, Shakeel Ahmed and Sálim Javed of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, report the sighting of a Long-eared Owl in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve in Abu Dhabi on 1 January 2022.

The 1 January 2022 sighting is the first recording of a Long-eared Owl in Abu Dhabi since October 1999, when another Owl was spotted in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve. The Owl was spotted at about 6.30 am on the northern part of the reserve. The previous day the area had been hit by a storm, with high winds and heavy rain lasting all day.

An  adult  Long-eared Owl, Asio otus, roosting on a tree in Al Wathba Wetland Reserve. Muhammad Maqsood in Ahmed & Javed (2025).

Long-eared Owls are classified as being of Least Concern under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened species. Nevertheless, the global population of the species is known to be declining, which, among other things, means that sightings on the fringes of the species range are becoming rarer.

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Numenius tenuirostris: The Slender-billed Curlew declared extinct.

The Earth's biodiversity is considered to be facing a crisis at a global level, with many experts believing that species may be going extinct at a rate as high as during the great extinctions recorded in the fossil record. Despite this, it is very hard to determine how many species are going extinct, in part because many species have never been documented, but also because it is generally impossible to tell whether a species is extinct, unless it can be confidently asserted that all populations were being monitored prior to extinction. The best recorded organisms tend to be Vertebrates, and one of the most extensively monitored Vertebrate groups are the Birds, a group which tend to be highly visible, and which are often recorded extensively by non-professional citizen-science groups. Despite this attention, many species of Birds have not been seen for a long time, and this cannot always be taken as evidence that they have become extinct: for instance, the Black-browed Babbler, Malacocincla perspicillata, was rediscovered in 2020 after not being observed in 180 years. The apparent extinction of species can be problematic, causing conservationists to cease efforts to protect a species which is close to extinction; conversely failure to realise that a species has become extinct can lead to efforts being dedicated to preserving it which could otherwise have been directed towards other species which might still be saved.

In a paper published in the journal Ibis on 17 November 2024, Greame  Buchanan of the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Ben Chapple of the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research at University College London, Alex Berryman of BirdLife International, Nicola Crockford of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Justin Jansen of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and Alexander Bond of the Bird Group at the Natural History Museum, formally declare the Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, to be extinct.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species currently lists the Slender-billed Curlew as Critically Endangered, on the assumption that the total population is less than 50 Birds and declining. The species is believed to be restricted to the Palaearctic biogeographical region, breeding in central Asia and migrating to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula. Slender-billed Curlews are thought to breed to the east of the Ural Mountains, in the area around Omsk in southern Russia. Isotope studies of museum specimens suggest that the species may also have bred further south, in northern Kazakhstan, while some eggs assigned to the species, also in museum collections, indicate that the species may also have bred to the west of the Urals. Outside of the breeding season the Birds ranged west as far as Western Europe and the Atlantic coast of North Africa, being known from across the Mediterranean Region, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Pannonian Plains of southeast Central Europe.

Once widespread in Europe, Slender-billed Curlews were last observed in Brittany, France, in February 1968, and in North Yemen in January 1984. A colony, thought to be the last, was known on the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the 1990s, with the last reported sighting in the winter of 1997/8, although a flock of Slender-billed Curlews was photographed in southern Italy in  March 1995. No subsequent observations of the species have been made, despite extensive searches across its former range, including the Middle East and Central Asia.

The last known photograph of a group of Slender-billed Curlews, taken in southern Italy in March 1995. Marco Basso in van den Berg (1995).

The Slender-billed Curlew was first observed breeding in 1912 by Russian ornithologist Valentin Ushakov, who first noted that the species appeared to be in decline. The possibility that Slender-billed Curlews might be at risk of extinction was first raised in 1943 by German ornithologists Erwin Stresemann and Hermann Grote, but it was not until 1988 that the species was identified as Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The species was listed as Critically Endangered in 1994, following a re-assessment of its status, and an action plan for its recovery was produced in 1996. 

Based upon this long absence from its known range, and the extensive, yet unproductive, searched which have been made in the last three decades, combined with the declining number of sightings recorded throughout the twentieth century, Buchanan et al. carried out a statistical analysis of the probability that the species might still exist. Based upon this, they conclude that is most likely that the species became extinct in the 1990s, with only a miniscule possibility that the species might still exist in the 2020s.

If this analysis is correct, then the Slender-billed Curlew is only the third species of Bird known to spend a large part of its annual cycle in the Western Palaearctic to have become extinct since 1500, joining the Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, last reported in 1844, and the Canarian Oystercatcher, Haematopus meadewaldoi, last observed in 1913. 

A preserved museum specimen of a juvenile male Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris. Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Wikimedia Commons.

It is difficult to directly assess the cause of the extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew, since it is likely that the species finally died out around the time that an action plan for its survival was first drawn up. When that plan was produced, it identified that the species was threatened by habitat loss across its range, and potentially being hunted in some areas as well. 

The only records of breeding by the Slender-billed Curlew are those made by Valentin Ushakov in southern Russia in the early twentieth century. It is possibly that the main breeding area for the species was further south, on the steppes of northern Kazakhstan, which were extensively converted to croplands by the Russian Empire and Soviet Union in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in the process destroying extensive wetlands, which might have served as breeding grounds for Slender-billed Curlews, however, without further evidence, this is purely speculative. 

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Caprimulgus ritae: A new species of Nightjar from Timor and Wetar.

The Wallacean bioregion lies between the Asian and Australian continents, and has been recognised as significant for our understanding of evolution and biogeography since the nineteenth century. The islands of Wallacea are separated from the Asian and Australian landmasses by areas of deep water, and have never been connected to either area by a land-bridge, which means that every Animal and Plant there is descended from individuals that managed to cross by sea or air, leading to a huge number of endemic species (species not found anywhere else). Despite this significance, many groups of organisms are relatively understudied in Wallacea, and new species are still discovered there on a regular basis.

Nightjars are nocturnal Birds with highly cryptic plumage, seldom observed by Humans despite a near-global distribution. Their highly unobtrusive nature, combined with the similar appearance of different species of Nightjar makes them extremely hard to study, although in recent years, some progress has been made on differentiating Nightjar species by their songs, aided by the fact that Nightjars will respond to the recorded calls of members of their own species, but not those of other species.

The islands of Timur and Wetar, in the Lesser Sunda Islands, are known to be home to a form of Long-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus sp.), which is small in size, leading to the suggestion that it might be a population of Caprimulgus manillensis, otherwise known from the Philippines, Caprimulgus celebensis, otherwise known from Sulawesi, or Caprimulgus macrurus, which is distributed from Pakistan to Australia, and generally accepted to be a species complex rather than a single species.

In a paper published in the journal Ibis on 24 June 2024, the late Ben King of the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, George Sangster of the Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Colin Trainor of the College of Engineering, IT and Environment at Charles Darwin University, Martin Irestedt, also of the Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Dewi Prawiradlilaga of the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense at the Cibinong Science Centre, and Per Ericson, again of the Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, formally describe the Nightjars found on Timor and Wetar islands as a new species.

King et al. compared recordings of Nightjars from Timor and Wetar to recordings of Nightjars from other areas, finding that these calls were quire distinct. They then compiled a genetic phylogeny for the genus Caprimulgus including two museum specimens collected from Timor and Wetar, again recovering these as a separate species, most closely related to Mees's Nightjar, Caprimulgus meesi, which is found on Flores and Sumba islands, but separated from this by a mean sequence divergence of 5.8%, considered sufficient to differentiate species (the mean sequence divergence between Humans and Chimpanzees is only 1.23%).

The new species is named Caprimulgus ritae in honour of Rita Bobbin, a long-term friend of Ben King. It is described on the basis of four museum specimens in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre.

Male Caprimulgus ritae, Wetar, 13 October 2014. James Eaton in King et al. (2024). 

Caprimulgus ritae is brownish in colour with a white and cinnamon speckled pattern and a distinct white bar on its tail. It is found only on the islands of Timor and Wetar. It is a forest specialist, although it appears to be quite flexible about the forests it will live in, having been recorded in a range of environments from tall evergreen forest to highly deciduous dry forest. It generally appears to favour lowlands, but has been recorded as high as 1500 m above sealevel. 

The island of Wetar still retains more than 95% of its original vegetation cover, including extensive areas of forest, while both West Timor and Timor-Leste have extensive forest reserves, which appear to form primary habitats for the Nightjar, which King et al. estimate to have a population probably numbered in the hundreds or thousands.

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