Two Rhino Subspieces Declared Extinct; Group Lists Critically Endanged [PHOTOS]

A conservation group, issuing its latest list of endangered and threatened species, said Thursday that two species of African rhinos have been poached into extinction.

About a third of the 61,900 species catalogued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are classified as "vulnerable," "endangered," "critically endangered," or extinct, with some groups, such as amphibians and reptiles, in particularly rapid decline.

The new assessment shows that a subspecies of the western black rhino native to western Africa is now extinct, joining a long list of creatures - from the Tasmanian tiger to the Arabian gazelle - that no longer stride the planet.

Plant species are disappearing too. Such was the fate of the Chinese water fir, once common in China but now apparently extinct in the wild due to habitat loss.

There were some good news from the new list. The southern white rhino subspecies is back from the brink, its numbers up from 100 at the end of the 19th century to some 20,000 today.

Central Asia's Przewalski's horse, meanwhile, has moved from a status of critically endangered to endangered.

The photographs presented here represent a selection of species from The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.