Wildlife populations decline 73 percent over past half-century, report says

A pink dolphin in the Negro river in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. A WWF report has found the species is in decline [File: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP]

Wildlife populations across the globe have shrunk by more than 70 percent over the past half-century, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The conservation charity published a stocktake on Thursday, assessing more than 5,000 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, warning that habitats like the Amazon rainforest were reaching “tipping points”, with potentially “catastrophic consequences” for “most species”.