Half the world's wildlife lost in the last four decades

The number of wild animals on Earth has more than halved in the last four decades, according to new research.

The 2014 Living Planet Report shows that populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have dropped by an average of 52 per cent since 1970.

Compiled by scientists at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the report tracked over 10,000 vertebrate populations, covering over 3,000 species.

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"The scale of the destruction highlighted in this report should be a wake-up call for us all," David Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK told The Guardian.

"If half the animals died in London zoo next week it would be front page news," said Professor Ken Norris, ZSL's director of science. "But that is [what is] happening in the great outdoors," he warned.

According to the report, the largest threat to global biodiversity is the impact of habitat destruction, caused by unsustainable human consumption. It also warned that the impacts of global warming on wildlife are becoming "an increasing concern".

"For more than 40 years, humanity's demand on nature has exceeded what our planet can replenish," said the report. "We would need the regenerative capacity of 1.5 Earths to provide the ecological services we currently use."

The biggest decline was witnessed among freshwater species, where numbers have fallen by 76 per cent. Among marine and terrestrial species the average loss was 39 per cent.

"This damage is not inevitable but a consequence of the way we choose to live," said Norris. The report warns that food and energy must be produced more sustainably and land must be protected from development and deforestation in order to prevent even further decline in populations.