European hamster, North Atlantic right whale among latest species to become critically endangered

(CNN)"This is a year that didn't happen," says Craig Hilton-Taylor. Many of us may wish this was the case. Hilton-Taylor, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is referring to the "huge" gap in biodiversity data as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. "We've lost lots of valuable time in terms of monitoring," he says. Nevertheless, on July 9 the IUCN released its latest Red List of Threatened Species, covering the changing fates of some of the 120,000 species it monitors. Over 32,000 species are currently threatened with extinction; among them, the European hamster, the North Atlantic right whale and multiple species of lemur are newly listed as critically endangered --...