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PHOTOS: Parachute Spider, New Shrew on 2008 ''Red List''

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PHOTOS: Fishing Cat, New Shrew Among At-Risk Species

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October 6, 2008--Named for a French missionary, the Pere David's deer, native to China, is among the species listed as "extinct in the wild" on the 2008 International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species, released today. (Read the full story.)

Of the almost 45,000 species evaluated for the new list, 38 percent are close to extinction, the report authors say. The survey revealed that at least 76 mammals have become extinct since 1500.

But the study also shows that conservation efforts can make a difference. Captive-bred populations of the Pere David's deer released in the 1980s, for example, have done well in recent years, raising hopes for the species' recovery.

—Photograph by Bates Littlehales/NGS