20% of all worlds’ animals must be fear to become extinct, according to new data on Earth life published by 174 scientists in the journal Science. The number of endangered animals is even rising due to human behavior.

Researchers believe that since the dinosaurs left planet earth more than 65 million years ago, our contemporary era represents another period of mass-extinction caused by humans.

On a list of the 25,000 most endangered animal types, acknowledged by International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the panda bear is one of the animals that are in greatest risk. The polar bear, the Tasmanian devil or the Iberian lynx belong to the list of the 25 per cent of all mammals that are in high risk of extinction.

Additionally, 13 % of all birds, 22% of the reptiles and 41% of the still existing amphibians are expected to stop to exist on earth.

Experts warn that biodiversity on our planet is increasingly ruined as extinction rates of the last 40 years widely exceed the usual background rates by more than two order of magnitude.

Nevertheless, animal protection and conservation programs reveal success stories in the report. 64 species improved their status on earth because of human initiative.

Prof Jonathan Baillie, Director of Conservation Programmes at the Zoological Society of London, states: “This paper is proof that conservation is working. Now we have to scale-up our efforts to match the unprecedented threats faced by the natural world”.