Iucn red list officially declares multiple species extinct in 2025: slender-billed curlew and christmas island shrew among the lost

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has formally declared several species extinct in 2025, marking the end of years-long scientific assessments that confirm what researchers have long suspected. While these species may have vanished from the wild years or even decades ago, their official extinction status represents a sobering milestone in the ongoing biodiversity crisis.

The slender-billed curlew, a grayish-brown migratory waterbird that once traveled between breeding grounds in Siberia and the Kazakh Steppe to wintering areas across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, hasn’t been reliably documented since 1995. The last confirmed photograph was captured on Morocco’s Atlantic coast nearly 30 years ago. Conservation scientist Geoff Hilton from the UK’s Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust reflected on the loss, noting that “we arguably spent too much time watching the bird’s decline and not enough actually trying to fix things.”

Also joining the extinction list is the Christmas Island shrew, a tiny mammal that was once common across Australia’s Christmas Island. After being widespread historically, only four confirmed sightings were recorded in the 20th century—two in 1958, one in 1984, and the final observation in 1985. Scientists believe the species fell victim to a blood-borne parasite carried by invasive black rats, the same threat that eliminated two endemic rat species on the island. These official declarations serve as stark reminders of the urgent need for proactive conservation efforts before species reach the point of no return.