A new list of threatened mammals in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini shows that 11 more species have edged closer to extinction since 2016. Those that have joined the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s regional Red List for mammals at risk are: Lesueur’s hairy bat, the laminate vlei rat, the thick-tailed bushbaby, the aardvark and the African straw-coloured fruit bat. The Namaqua dune mole-rat showed one of the sharpest declines, jumping from Least Concern to Endangered. Joseph Ogutu is a statistician who researches collapsing wildlife populations in Africa. He explains that of the 336 mammals assessed, 70 are now threatened and 42% of the mammals only found in South Africa are at risk of extinction.
What does an uplisting on the Red List actually mean?
The latest, 2025 Red List is compiled by the Endangered Wildlife Trust and South African National Biodiversity Institute. If an animal is “uplisted” on the list, it has been moved to a higher extinction‐risk category.
