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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Lutra perspicillata: Smooth Coated Otter confirmed within the Papikonda National Park, Andhra Pradesh.

The Smooth Coated Otter, Lutra perspicillata, is one of three species of Otter found in India, along with the Asian  Small-clawed  Otter, Aonyx cinereus, and the Eurasian Otter, Lutra lutra. It is found in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal states, but has suffered from a declining population due to habitat loss, poaching, pollution, and the eutrophication of waterways. The species is classified as Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

In Andhra Pradesh, Smooth Coated Otters are known from the East Godavari, West Godavari,  and Visakhapatnam districts, as well as the Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary, all on the state's northeastern coastal plain. There have also been unconfirmed reports of the species in the Papikonda National Park in the Papi Hills, inland of that coastal plain, although this has not, to date, been confirmed.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 September 2025, Arun Kumar Gorati, Ritesh Vishwakarma, Anukul Nath, and Parag Nigam of the Wildlife Institute of India, detail the first confirmed sighting of a Smooth Coated Otter in the Papikonda National Park, backed up with photographic evidence.

The Otter was spotted resting on a sandbank exposed by low summer water levels on the Godavari River, about 5 km above the Polavaram Dam Project, slightly before 6.00 pm local time on 12 June 2024. It remained on the bank for about a minute, before entering the water and not being seen again.

A Smooth Coated Otter, Lutra perspicillata, on a sandbank on the Godavari River in the Papikonda National Park on 12 June 2024. Gorati et al. (2025).

As well as being of value in themselves, Otters are an important environmental indicator, demonstrating that the river has a healthy year-round Fish population, capable of supporting piscivorous predators.

However, this ecosystem is currently threatened by the development of the  Polavaram Dam Project. First conceived in the 1940s, work began on the project in the 1980s, with the aim of creating an irrigation system which will provide 2900 km² of farmland and 2 850 000 people with a reliable water supply, and produce hydroelectric power system capable of providing electricity to the entire State of Andhra Pradesh. However, when completed the dam should create a lake covering 631 km² of land, including much of the Papikonda National Park and the traditional lands of the Kondareddy people (considered to be a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group), who have been fighting to gain compensation for the planned losses. The project halted in 2019, due to a lack of funds and a flood which damaged a diaphragm wall, but work resumed in 2024, and the project is currently on course for completion in 2027. It already holds the record for the most concrete used for a single project in Human history.

The Polavaram Dam Project under construction. Hindustan Times.

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Vishnuonyx neptuni: A new species of Otter from the late Miocene Hammerschmiede Fauna of Bavaria.

The Hammerschmiede locality in Bavaria, Germany, has been producing Late Miocene Vertebrate and Invertebrate fossils for almost five decades. The fossils are predominantly found within a series of river channels, and date to between 11.62 and 11.44 million years ago. Over 130 species of Vertebrate have been recorded from this location, several of which are unknown from any other location, most notably the Ape, Danuvius guggenmosi. Despite this high diversity, to date only two species of Carnivorans have been described from Hammerschmiede, the Palm Civets Semigenetta sansaniensis and Semigenetta grandis. 

In a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on 16 September 2021, Nikolaos Kargopoulos of the Department of Geosciences at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Alberto Valenciano of the Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, and Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales de Aragón at the Universidad de Zaragoza, Panagiotis Kampouridis, also of the Department of Geosciences at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and Thomas Lechner and Madalaine Böhme, also of the Department of Geosciences at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, describe a new species of 'Bunodont' Otter from the Hammerschmiede locality.

The phylogeny and classification of Otters, Lutrinae, is generally poorly resolved, with the relationship of fossil groups such as the Potamotheriinae and Bunodonts to modern Otters remaining unclear. Bunodont Otters are a (probably paraphyletic) group of large and very large fossil Otters found across Eurasia, Africa, and North America. The classification of this group is itself poorly resolved, with uncertainty about which fossils should be included within it, with one genus, Enhydrictis, having been recently reclassified and no longer thought of as an Otter at all. 

The new species is placed in the genus Vishnuonyx, which contains previously described species from the Miocene of South and Southeast Asia and the Miocene and Pliocene of Africa, and given the specific name neptuni, in reference to Neptune, the Roman god of the seas. The species is described from a right hemimandible, with a first premolar alveolus (canine tooth socket) and the second, third and fourth premolars and first molar intact. A left hemimandible and a number of isolated teeth are also referred to the species. All were recovered from river channel deposits at Hammerschmiede between 2011 and 2020, during excavations carried out by palaeontologists from Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen.

 

The lower dentition of Vishnuonyx neptuni. (A) SNSB-BSPG 2020 XCIV-0301, right hemimandible (holotype; original specimen and screenshots of its 3D model) in labial (A1), (A4), lingual (A2) and occlusal (A3) views; (B) GPIT/MA/16733, left hemimandible in labial (B1), lingual (B2), (B4) and occlusal (B3(, (B5) views; (C) SNSB-BSPG 2020 XCIV-1301 right p4 in labial (C1), lingual (C2) and occlusal (C3) views. Screenshots of the 3D models not in scale. Kargopoulos et al. (2021).

The third premolar of Vishnuonyx neptuni is distinctly asymmetrical, with the bak of the tooth being visibly lager than the front. The main cusp has three crista (ridges) deriving from it, one at the front, one at the back, and one on the inside edge. The inside crysta expands to form part of the wall of the tooth, which hosts one of the three roots of the tooth.

The upper carnassial tooth (front molar, modified to have a cutting edge which occludes the cutting edge on the lower tooth, a diagnostic trait of Carnivorans) has moderate wear on its cutting edge. The tooth has a strong cingulum (convex protuberance below the crown). The tooth has a high paracone (front outer) cusp, which is attached to a ridge a metastyle (ridge on the outer surface). There is no carnassial notch (notch used to hold bone for a crushing bite, a common Carnivoran trait). The protocone, parastyle, and paracone cusps form a line, with the hypocone outside this, behind the paracone. 

 

The upper dentition of Vishnuonyx neptuni. (A) SNSB-BSPG 2020 XCIV-1022, left P3 in occlusal (A1), labial (A2) and lingual (A3) views; (B) GPIT/MA/17347, right P4 (original specimen and screenshots of its 3D model) in occlusal (B1), (B4), labial (B2), (B5) and lingual (B3), (B6) views; (C) SNSB-BSPG 2020 XCIV-1552, left M1 (original specimen and screenshots of its 3D model) in occlusal (C1), (C4), labial (C2), lingual (C3), mesial-occlusal (C5) and mesial (C6) views. Abbreviations: meta, metacone; metal, metaconule; lp, lingual platform; para, paracone; paral, paraconule; prot, protocone; protl, protoconule. Kargopoulos et al. (2021).

The upper molar is complete with some wear to the inner sides of the paracone and metacone. A distinct cingulum is present, although this is less developed towards the forepart of the toorh. The tooth is nearly rectangular in outline, and somewhat slim, although the outer suface is slightly higher at the fore than at the rear. The inner cusps are roughly the same height, and connected by a low crest with a notch towards its middle. Behind these two further cusps, the protoconule and metaconule rear cusps are connected by another ridge.

Neither of the two hemimandibles is complete. The right specimen preserves part of the socket of the canine, part of the angular process (bottom part of the back of the jaw) and part of the masseteric fossa (muscle attachment above the angular process), and everything in between. The muscle attachment is deepest at the top, the hind part of the hemimandible bent inwards, and the angular process small and hook-like. The left mandible is less well preserved, with only part of the canine socket, the cheek teeth and part of the masseteric fossa muscle attachment, however, on this specimen the attachments for the masseter pars superficialis and pars profunda muscles can be seen.

The canine is absent in both hemimandibles. The second premolar is two-rooted and has a distinct cingulum (convex protuberance beneath the crown), particularly on the inner side and towards the rear. The long axis of this tooth is not in line with the long axis of the tooth row. The third and fourth premolars are high and pointed, with their largest cusps towards the middle and inclined backwards. In the third premolar only a single cusp is present, and the tooth has a wrinkled surface. The fourth premolar is taller than the third (and the first molar), and has a second, smaller cusp behind the first. The first molar is broad, with a talonid (crushing region) covering about a third of its surface. The first cusp is wider than this crushing area. This tooth also has wide cingulum. 

The dentition of Vishnuonyx neptuni differs considerably from that of modern Otters, but fits well with the genus Vishnuonyx, which has been confidently assigned to the group based upon more complete material. This genus has previously been described from Asia and Africa, with the Asian specimens being older and less robust than the African specimens; Vishnuonyx neptuni, the first described European member of the genus, appears to be intermediate between these groups in both age and size.

 

Temporospatial distribution of the known species of the genus Vishnuonyx. Kargopoulos et al. (2021).

The oldest known member of the genus, Vishnuonyx maemohensis, comes from Mae Moh in Thailand, and is dated to the Middle Miocene, between 14.2 and 13.2 million years old. Slightly younger is the late Middle Miocene Vishnuonyx chinjiensis from the Siwalik Hills of northwest India, which is thought to be between 13.8 and 12.7 million years old. A second specimen assigned to Vishnuonyx chinjiensis has been described from Ngorora in western Kenya, this specimen being about 12 million years old. Also known from Africa is the Latest Miocene Vishnuonyx? angololensis from Lower Nawata in Lothagam, near the southwestern shores of Lake Turkana, Kenya, which is dated to between 7.3 and 6.6 million years ago. Finally, an Early Pliocene specimen Vishnuonyx sp. has been recorded from Ethiopia and is thought to be between 5.2 and 4.85 million years old. The HAM 4 fossiliferous layer at Hammerschmiede, which produced Vishnuonyx neptuni, has been dated to 11.44 million years ago, making Vishnuonyx neptuni slightly younger than Vishnuonyx chinjiensis.

This suggests that the genus Vishnuonyx originated in Southeast Asia, and migrated westwards through the Indian subcontinent, reaching Europe and East Africa by the end of the Middle Miocene, with the genus persisting in East Africa into the Pliocene. Vishnuonyx neptuni is sufficiently different from other members of the genus to imply a reasonably long period of reproductive isolation, leading Kargopoulos et al. to reason that its ancestors reached Europe before 11.5 million years ago.

Vishnuonyx is thought to have had a semi-aquatic lifestyle similar to that of modern Otters, suggesting that it is most likely to have dispersed from Southeast Asia into South Asia, Europe, and Africa, by water. During the Middle Miocene the Central Paratethys Ocean separated East Africa and Arabia from southern Asia, with the Eastern Paratethys, separated from the Cenral Paratethys by the Araks Straight, forming a connection with Central Europe. This would have provided a plausible route for the westward expansion of the genus Vishnuonyx.

 

The proposed dispersal path of Vishnuonyx from South Asia towards Central Europe and East Africa during the Konkian around 13 million years ago (late Badenian, early Serravalian). Kargopoulos et al. (2021).

The teeth of Otters are adapted for two slightly different diets; catching slippery Fish, and breaking open hard shells. All living Otters pursue both these feeding methods to some extent, although they vary in the extent to which they depend on each method, which is reflected in their dental morphology. In species which primarily feed on hard-shelled prey such as Clams or Crustaceans, the molars tend to be broad and flat with well-developed crushing areas, whereas those that specialise in catching Fish tend to have high pointed cusps useful for catching slippery prey. The teeth of Vishnuonyx neptuni are apparently more adapted towards a piscivorous diet, with high, pointed premolars and a strong cutting blade on the molar. This is at odds with other 'Bunodont' Otters, which appear to have been primarily durophages specialising in hard prey, and suggests an ecology similar to that of the modern Amazonian Giant Otter, Pteronura brasiliensis.

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Aonyx capensis: Genetic diversity of African Clawless Otters in urbanised areas of Gauteng, South Africa.

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in urbanised areas around the world, with profound impacts on the wildlife of the areas into which cities are expanding. Many cities do contain areas of parkland or other open spaces that can be utilised by wildlife, but animals vary in their ability to utilise such spaces, with species that require large territories generally faring particularly badly. Gauteng Province of South Africa has a complex landscape comprising urban areas surrounded by less transformed periurban areas. This is home to two species of Otters, African Clawless Otter, Aonyx capensis, and the Spotted-necked Otter, Hydrictis maculicollis, both of which are classified as Near Threatened under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, though to date their have been no studies of the populations of either of these.

A four year old, male African clawless otter, on the bank of the Kavango river, Namibia. Mark Paxton/Shamvura Camp/Wikimedia Commons.

In a paper published in the South African Journal of Science on 30 July 2019, Damian Ponsonby of the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Thabang Madisha of the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, Ute Schwaibold, also of the
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Desiré Dalton, also of the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, and of the Department of Zoology at the University of Venda, describe the results of a study of the population of Otters in Gauteng using DNA extracted from spraint (feces), a procedure previously used successfully on European Otter populations.

Ponsonby et al. collected samples of Otter spraint from sites at 5 km intervals along eight rivers across the Crocodile and Vaal river catchments, obtaining a total of 211 samples. Of these 171 were identified by genetic markers as belonging to the African Clawless Otter, while eight came from the
Spotted-necked Otter and 32 could not be identified. Due to the small sample size the Spotted-necked Otter was excluded from the rest of the study.

Of the 171 African Clawless Otter spraint samples, two were found to have come from the same animal, giving a total of 170 individual Otters in the study. However, these Otters showed very little genetic diversity, suggesting that they have undergone one or more local extinction events, with the area being recolonised by the decedents of a small number of individuals. As well as hinting at past problems for the population, the low genetic diversity observed also makes the population more vulnerable to future threats, particularly diseases, which can spread rapidly through populations with low genetic diversity.

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