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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Striped Hyenas spotted in the Dghoumes National Park, Tunisia, and the Moroccan High Atlas for the first time in decades.

Striped Hyenas, Hyaena hyaena, are medium-sized Carnivoran Mammals with a wide distribution from North and West Africa, through East Africa and the Middle East to the Caucasus region and South and Central Asia. They mate for life, with both members of a pair partaking equally in the raising of the young. Spotted Hyenas are primarily carrion feeders, although they will hunt small prey, and can be found in wide range of habitats. They are, however, seldom tolerated around farmland, because of their perceived threat to livestock, and have become locally extinct across parts of their range, while suffering major declines in population in others. As such they are currently classified as Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

A Striped Hyena, Hyaena hyaena, in the Jebel Akhdar uplands of northeastern Libya. Rushikesh Deshmukh/Wikimedia Commons.

The expansion of agriculture in Tunisia, and in particular the farming of livestock, has fuelled conflicts between Humans and carnivores, with only the African Wolf, Canis lupaster, and the Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, remaining in many areas. The Striped Hyena is thought to have disappeared from most of Tunisia in the twentieth century, with the only twenty-first century records coming from camera traps in the Jebel Serj National Park in the north of the country.

In a letter to the journal Orynx published on 30 August 2022, Mohamed Khalil Meliane and Amira Saidi of Marwell Wildlife and the Research Laboratory of Biodiversity, Management and Conservation of Biological Systems at the University of Tunis El Manar, Marie Petretto and Tim Woodfine, also of Marwell Wildlife, and Philip Riordan and Tania Gilbert, again of Marwell Wildlife and of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton, report camera trap observations of the Spotted Hyena in the Dghoumes National Park in southern Tunisia.

The observations were made as part of an assessment of biodiversity in the park following the re-introduction of the Scimitar-horned Oryx, Oryx dammah, Dorcas Gazelle, Gazella dorcas and North African Ostrich, Struthio camelus camelus. A total of 30 camera traps were deployed along Animal trails between April 2018 and March 2022. Striped Hyenas were spotted only during one month each during 2018 and 2019, but were spotted during six months each in 2020 and 2021. During this time 20 observations were made of at least two individual Hyenas. Camera traps placed in the Jbil National Park and Sidi Toui National Park in southern Tunisia failed to record any Spotted Hyenas.

In a second letter published in Orynx on the same day, Abderrazak Ek Alami and El Mustapha Bouzid of the Moroccan Ministry of National Education, and Abderrazak Fattah of the University of Hassan II in Casablanca, confirm the first observation of a Striped Hyena in the Central High Atlas Mountains of Morocco since 2000.

El Alami et al. were engaged in surveying the area for Carnivores between 2019 and 2022, although they did not observe any Striped Hyenas during this survey. However, on 20 April 2022 a Hyena was shot and killed by a local resident in the Faryata region north-east of the town of Beni Mellal, with photographs of the dead Animal being subsequently posted to social media, prompting local authorities to investigate, as the species is protected under Moroccan law.

This (unfortunate) incident confirms that Striped Hyenas are still present in the High Atlas, although the fact that the species was not detected by a survey which was able to located other elusive species suggests that their numbers are very low, leading El Alami et al. to conclude that more efforts are needed both to protect Carnivores in this region, and to promote education about conservation in order to reduce Human-wildlife conflicts.

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Hyena kills child in Samburu County, Kenya.

A Hyena has killed a child in Sambaru County Kenya. The boy who died and his sister were attacked by the Animal at Suguta Marmar. The two children were attacked by the animal while herding the family Goats. The Hyena was driven off, and eventually killed, by members of the public, two of whom were also injured in the process. The children were rushed to the Samburu County Referral Hospital in Maralal, where the boy succumbed to his injuries, while the girl is described as being in a serious but stable condition, with injuries to a leg and both hands.

 

A girl recovering in Samburu County Referral Hospital after being attacked by a Hyena. KTN News.

Residents of Samburu County have increasingly complained of Animal attacks in recent years, although the majority of these have been against farms and livestock rather than people, with Hyenas, Lions, and Elephants being cited as the most frequent culprits. Kenya has a large wildlife-based tourist industry, and most large animals are quite strongly protected, leading to many people in rural areas calling on the Kenya Wildlife Service to do more to protect communities living alongside large wildlife.

A pair of Spotted Hyenas, Crocuta crocuta, in the Masai Mara National Park.

There are two species of Hyena found in Kenya, the Spotted Hyena, Crocuta crocuta, and the Striped Hyena, Hyaena hyaena. Of these the Spotted Hyena, which is larger and generally perceived as more aggressive, is more prone to attacks on Humans, but both species are known to attack both livestock and people, and children would be potentially vulnerable to either species.

A pair of Striped Hyena, Hyaena hyaena, in Kenya. Kenya Wildlife Service.

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Chasmaporthetes sp.: The first evidence of Hyenas within the Arctic Circle.

Hyenas first appeared in Eurasia in the Early Miocene, and rapidly diversified to become the most abundant predators in Eurasia, with more than 60 described species. At some point during the Plio-Pleistocene Hyenas reached North America, becoming common in the southern United States and Mexico during the Pleistocene, before disappearing there during the End Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction. Hyenas are thought, like many other Mammal groups, to have reached the Americas via the Beringian Land Bridge, which connected Alaska to the Russian Far East during periods of low sealevel associated with the Pleistocene glaciations. However, to date this has been an entirely theoretical movement, with Hyena remains unknown from northern parts of the United States or Canada.

In a paper published in the journal Open Quaternary on 18 June 2019, Jack Tseng of the University at Buffalo, Grant Zazula of the Government of Yukon, and of Research and Collections at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and Lars Werdelin of the Swedish Museum of Natural History describe the first recorded Hyena specimens from the Pleistocene deposits of the Old Crow Basin, in the unglaciated region of northern Yukon Territory, Canada.

The material described comprises two isolated teeth, probably belonging to the species Chasmaporthetes ossiphragus, and certainly to a member of the genus Chasmaporthetes, from the CRH 11A locality, on a point bar near the downstream end of the basin. Over 50 000 reworked fossils from at least 80 vertebrate species have been recovered from point bars on the Old Crow River. The material is thought to be between 1.4 million and 12 000 years in age, but almost certainly more than 850 000 years old and probably closer to 1.4 million years old.

Hyena fossils from Old Crow, Yukon Territory, Canada. Chasmaporthetes cf. Chasmaporthetes ossifragus, CMN 24958, right p3: (A) lingual stereopair views, (B) labial stereopair views, (C) occlusal stereopair views. CMN 38053, left m1: (D) labial stereopair views, (E. lingual stereopair views, (F) occlusal stereopair views. Tseng et al. (2019).

The genus Chasmaporthetes has previously been recorded in buth Asia and North America, to its discovery in the Beringia region is not unexpected, though the most northerly American specimen previously discovered comes from Meade County in Kansas, more than 4000 km to the south, while the closest Asian specimens come from Shamar in Mongolia, roughly 6500 km away, with the distance between the two sites being over 10 000 km.

Fossil localities containing Chasmaporthetes. New material described in this study from Old Crow Basin (Locality 11A) is marked with a star. Dashed arrows indicate likely dispersal route evidenced by new fossils. Regions with more than one fossil locality are indicated with a quantity after the locality marker. Tseng et al. (2019).

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