Species Extinction in 2025: The State of Life on Our Planet

By Isa Arellano

It is two months from the end of the year 2025, and the database of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed 44 species as completely extinct this year alone. [1] 

The decline of wildlife

The IUCN is the world’s leading organization dedicated to protecting the natural world through research and advocacy. They are partnered with several governments and scientists, with whom they develop policies for energy and conservation to preserve nature. Their Red List, which began in 1964, is the most comprehensive database of species’ population health and currently monitors 172,600 different species, over a quarter of which are endangered. [2] As of April 2025, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species included 47,187 species under threat of extinction. [3] 

By going onto the Red List database’s advanced search feature and filtering it down to extinct species by the publication year 2025, 44 species show up. An additional two species are extinct in the wild, and 784 are critically endangered. Last year, 137 species were extinct.  

In the span of two years, 181 species no longer exist on our planet. 

The mass extinctions happening year after year are following a gradual trend that has been taking place over the last 50 years. The 2024 Living Planet Index found that between 1970 and 2020, wildlife populations have declined by 73%, with the most loss found in the Caribbean, Latin-America, Africa, Asia, and freshwater habitats. [4] 

What’s gone extinct?

Notable species that have been categorised as extinct this year include the Bermuda Hawk; Christmas Island Shrew; and four different types of bandicoots, including the Liverpool Plains striped bandicoot, Desert bandicoot, and Southern striped bandicoot. Most of these animals resided in Austronesia. 

While most species that have gone extinct may not be well-known, the sheer scale of extinctions and species endangerment has detrimental effects.  

Though the IUCN’s Red List is our most comprehensive database for species population health, it represents an atomically small portion of life that currently exists. In 2024, scientists recorded more than 2.1 million unique species that live on our planet. [5] Yet even this number is an underestimation. Several areas of our planet like the deep sea are still being explored, and with the existence of many tiny species such as bacteria and fungi, there are likely thousands—if not millions—of species that have yet to be discovered. This means the IUCN Red List represents approximately 0.08% of life on Earth that we know of and even less than that in reality. 

Although the majority of species that experience population decline and extinction are thought of as being in warmer climates, Northern Ireland is not exempt from the massive decline faced by many wildlife species. The 2023 State of Nature report found that 12% of species in Northern Ireland are at risk for extinction. [6] While broader UK is facing similar concerns with nature conservation, Northern Ireland is notable for the degradation of its coastal areas and Lough Neagh: the largest freshwater lake in both the UK and Ireland, which is currently experiencing harmful algal blooms. The Northern Irish coast and Lough Neagh are home to several rare and vulnerable species, including two beetles whose Irish populations live exclusively around Lough Neagh. [7] 

Even more concerning is the 42% decline in flowering plant species and 62% decline in bryophytes—a type of plant classification that includes mosses and liverwort. [8] These plants play important roles in maintaining ecosystems by energy to insects and herbivores, which end up being eaten by predators. When plant populations decrease, the rest of the ecosystem ends up decreasing with them because there is not as much food for prey to eat, which has a domino effect on predators who are unable to find prey. As the basis of the food chain, any damage to plant populations ends up damaging the ecosystem as a whole. 

Even animal species extinctions can have devastating consequences. Every animal has a niche that contributes to the health of the environment they live in, from creating habitats for other species to live in to getting rid of debris and waste that would otherwise pile up. Pollinator species that are responsible for the continuation of plant populations are also facing a severe decline in Northern Ireland. [8]  

Why does this matter?

As mentioned above, the declining populations of species and increased rate of extinction damages ecosystems by perpetuating species endangerment through the collapse of food chains. But there are other harmful effects of species extinction. Each species has a unique genome and traits that aren’t found in any other group of organisms, hence why they are a species. When species die out, that special combination of traits that defines an entire population is lost forever. These deaths contribute to a loss of biodiversity, which is vital to an ecosystem’s ability to survive disastrous events like earthquakes, floods, and fires.  

Natural habitats are home to and are supported by various species contribute to the health of the planet. Plants are integral to turning carbon dioxide back into breathable oxygen, desalinating water, and reintroducing key nutrients in the soil that make it fertile for future plant growth. Because of the interconnected nature of ecosystems, every species extinction makes Earth’s future more uncertain. 

Not does species extinction create vulnerability in the wilderness, it also creates weakness in domesticated farmlands, especially in crop farming. Because many large scale farming practices rely on a handful of crop varieties, they are more susceptible to disease and pest infestations that affect our food supply and other industries like livestock. 

With every year that passes, we continue to lose a staggering amount of life that helps make our planet liveable and sustainable for the future. This year we lost Australia’s only native shrew species along with more than forty other life forms that will likely never return. 

What about next year? Next decade? 

Hope for the future

The state of the planet seems bleak. Yet researchers and advocates still have hope that we can come back from the brink. Policies against pollution and habitat destruction are always being recommended to governments and industries for the betterment of our planet, and scientific advancements are constantly being made for the preservation of our most vulnerable ecosystems.  

It remains to be seen whether these measures will truly help preserve life on Earth, but it is up to us to support conservation efforts. Whether it’s recycling, being more conscious of energy and water usage, or volunteering to clean up natural areas, every little action helps. 

References

[1] “The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.” 2025. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2025. https://www.iucnredlist.org/search?dl=true&permalink=31089071-9a57-4c8b-a197-c6ed6e5192a6. 

[2] IUCN. 2025. “Background & History.” IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2025. https://www.iucnredlist.org/about/background-history. 

[3] “IUCN Red List Update: Global Impacts, Regional Statuses, and the Way Forward.” 2025. IUCN. April 9, 2025. https://iucn.org/news/202504/iucn-red-list-update-global-impacts-regional-statuses-and-way-forward. 

[4] Ritchie, Hannah, and Fiona Spooner. 2024. “The 2024 Living Planet Index Reports a 73% Average Decline in Wildlife Populations — What’s Changed since the Last Report?” Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/2024-living-planet-index 

[5] Ashworth, James. 2024. “What Is a Species, and How Many Species Are There?” Nhm.ac.uk. 2024. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-a-species.html. 

[6] BBC News. 2023. “Nature and Environment in Decline across Northern Ireland – Report,” September 28, 2023, sec. Northern Ireland. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66944701. 

[7] “Lough Neagh and Lough Beg RAMSAR.” 2017. Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. August 4, 2017. https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/protected-areas/lough-neagh-and-lough-beg-ramsar-daera. 

[8] Burns, Fiona, S Mordue, N Al Fulaij, Philipp Boersch-Supan, and RD Gregory. 2023. “State of Nature 2023.” September 1, 2023. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.20636.26245.