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Gorillas in the Congo are also critically endangered.
Photo: imago images / Cavan Images
In the case of species protection, the negative headlines have been increasing for years.
Thousands of animals are already on the Red List of the World Conservation of Nature Union.
But the message was not as clear as the "Living Planet Report 2020" published on Thursday by the environmental foundation WWF and the London Zoological Society: more than two thirds of the animal world examined for the report has been destroyed by humans in the past 50 years.
The populations of animals, birds and fish included in the biennial report have therefore shrunk by almost 70 percent since 1970.
According to the study organizers, this is due to the destruction of forests and the spread of agriculture.
For the report, the environmental organization WWF analyzed around 21,000 populations of around 4,400 vertebrate species.
The decline in mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles averaged 68 percent between 1970 and 2016 and has now risen to 70 percent.
The data used - according to the report, almost 4,000 sources were used - took into account stocks from all climatic zones, continents and different habitats, from forests to freshwater.
According to the report, it is increasingly so-called citizen scientists who are involved in counting animals.
Species extinction hotspots: Africa and Latin America
According to the report, particularly endangered animals are the eastern lowland gorilla in the Congo, leatherback turtles in Costa Rica and sturgeons in the Yangtze - the latter has fallen by 97 percent since 1970.
Latin America is overall "extremely bad", said study author Christoph Heinrich from WWF.
According to the report, the number of species examined in Europe is 25 percent.
The strongest interventions in the landscape happened here before 1970 and thus before the beginning of the study period, Heinrich explained the comparatively good value.
As the report says, most places with no human footprint are in just a few countries: Russia, Canada, Brazil and Australia.
In Germany, partridge and lapwing are being hit by massive populations, says Heinrich.
These two are only representative of the bird and insect species in the agricultural landscape.
Overall, the report represents only a small section of biological diversity. Biologists assume 10 and 20 million animal and plant species worldwide, according to WWF spokesman Heinrich.
But not all of them are consistently monitored.
How things stand with insects has not yet been taken into account.
Natural destruction and overuse are happening at an unprecedented rate, according to the report.
"We are losing the diversity of life on earth," said Christoph Heinrich.
In the 2018 report, the measured decline in the observed populations was still 60 percent on average.
The development is "extremely worrying".
In light of the numbers, WWF is calling for a system change in agricultural policy, the food system and global supply chains.
In addition, a third of the earth must be placed under protection by 2030.
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