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A new metric of extinction risk considers how cultures care for species

When local cultures are threatened, that puts their important species at risk

An underwater photo of a juvenile dugong swimming in the Red Sea not too far from the surface.

Dugongs, like this juvenile in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, were recently added to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Under a new metric that accounts for cultural connections between species and humans, dugongs are endangered.

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By Jude Coleman

- More than 2 years ago

In shallow coastal waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, a seagrass-scrounging cousin of the manatee is in trouble.