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Bildunterschrift:

The gradual extinction of endangered species is continuing. That is the pessimistic conclusion of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UCN), author of the yearly "Red List of Threatened Species." Every four years, the group also produces an analysis of the threat facing the world's rarest species. In April 2009, co-author of the study Jean-Christophe Vie delivered his hard-hitting verdict: The goal of the 2002 UN Convention to halt the extinction of endangered species by 2010 has not been reached. 

"The governments of the world should employ the same ambition in protecting nature that they use to protect the economic and financial sectors," demanded Vie. But even climate change, which concerns the survival of our own species, occupies a place of secondary importance behind the current financial and economic crisis.

Onagers, also known as Asian wild asses, are most numerous on the plains of southern Mongolia. Illegal poaching has halved their numbers in the previous 16 years and they are now classified under the IUCN's Red List as a "highly endangered" species.