Floundering

Wellcome Connecting Science | Graphic | Curious Nature

This category represents species that are struggling. The reasons and extent of their struggles vary but loss and change to habitats is a common factor. Perhaps most familiar from the Twelve Days of Christmas, turtle doves have declined by 93% since 1970. The Northern February red stonefly only lives by clean water, and is only found here in Britain, so its habitats are increasingly restricted.

The number of European otters has drastically declined, largely because of polluted water. A reference genome for this species will help speed up further study of their genetics; from monitoring population structures to understanding the impact of pollutants.