--- title: Wildlife Populations Have Dropped by More Than Half description: The population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by more than half since 1970, according to a harrowing new report from WWF canonical: https://time.com/3446626/wildlife-populations-have-dropped-by-more-than-half/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-29T23:56:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:28:46.689Z article:section: Science og:title: Wildlife Populations Have Dropped by More Than Half og:description: The population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by more than half since 1970, according to a harrowing new report from WWF og:url: https://time.com/3446626/wildlife-populations-have-dropped-by-more-than-half/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Wildlife Populations Have Dropped by More Than Half twitter:description: The population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by more than half since 1970, according to a harrowing new report from WWF twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Wildlife Populations Have Dropped by More Than Half  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Sep 29, 2014 11:56 PM UTC  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Sep 29, 2014 11:56 PM UTC Vertebrate species populations have [dropped by more than half](http://wwf.panda.org/about%5Four%5Fearth/all%5Fpublications/living%5Fplanet%5Freport/) over the course of 40 years, according to a new report from WWF, marking a larger decrease than ever previously documented. The _Living Plant Report_ measured more than 10,000 representative populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish and found a 52% decline between 1970 and 2010\. The facts are grimmer for some species: freshwater dwellers showed an average decline of 76%. The study chalked up most of the decline to human impact. Habitat loss and hunting and fishing were the primary culprits, and climate change was the next largest threat, the report said. “This latest edition of the _Living Planet Report_ is not for the faint-hearted,” writes Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, says in a forward to the report. Wildlife Populations Have Dropped by More Than Half ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3446626/wildlife-populations-have-dropped-by-more-than-half/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3446626/wildlife-populations-have-dropped-by-more-than-half/"},"headline":"Wildlife Populations Have Dropped by More Than Half","datePublished":"2014-09-29T23:56:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:28:46.689Z","description":"\"This latest edition of the Living Planet Report is not for the faint-hearted\"","url":"https://time.com/3446626/wildlife-populations-have-dropped-by-more-than-half/","keywords":["Environment","climate change"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3446626/wildlife-populations-have-dropped-by-more-than-half/","name":"Wildlife Populations Have Dropped by More Than Half"}}]}] ```