There’s a way to stop the widescale loss of plants and animals on Earth, according to a conservation expert.
There have been five ‘mass extinction events’ in the world’s history. Human activity has put us on course for a sixth, which would see us lose 75% of all life on Earth. So far, we have lost, or almost lost, 25% of all mammals.
But there’s still time to stop the sixth mass extinction, says biology professor Amy B. McEuen, author of new book How to Think Like an Ecologist . One way to do this is to protect ‘umbrella’ species like monkeys, apes, and other well-known animals.
Umbrella species are large-bodied vertebrates, what some biologists call “charismatic megafauna”. One example relevant to China is primates, like gibbons, snub-nosed monkeys, langurs, macaques and lorises.
Professor McEuen unpacks a 2025 study conducted in the Yunnan province of China which found strong evidence that protecting primates as umbrella species safeguarded other animals and plants too. The researchers used extensive datasets looking at 16 species of primates. The study found that if 30% of Yunnan's land was designated for primate conservation, then 52% of its annual carbon sequestration, 52% of its water conservation and 54 % of its soil retention would also be protected. And that where there were lots of primates, there were also lots of seed plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other mammals too. So, by protecting its primates, Yunnan can protect its overall biodiversity.
The same theory applies to other umbrella species like bears, big cats, marine mammals, and large birds. It works because sizeable animals like these need large areas to support their populations – which in turn, are habitat for other species too.
Amy B. McEuen says: “The good news is humans have not yet caused a sixth mass extinction. The bad news is the rate of biodiversity loss is at the pace of past mass extinction events. We are in a critical window of opportunity, where our work to stop extinctions may be able to prevent a mass extinction.
“With millions of species to protect, we don’t have time to protect one species at a time. Luckily, there are more efficient ways of preserving biodiversity, including using an umbrella species approach.”
Nature is adept at recovering, reassures McEuen. Populations of humpback whales, for example, have bounced back in recent decades, and now number tens of thousands following conservation work and a whaling ban. In North America, bald eagles are now abundant near lakes – no longer losing their eggs to the devastating effects of synthetic chemicals such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT).
So, between conservation efforts and species’ innate adaptability, nature can recover. House finches in Arizona now have bigger, deeper beaks. They’ve adapted to suburban environments which have lots of sunflower seed in bird feeders, McEuen tell us. And there’s hope for coral reefs’ ability to adapt too: heat tolerance in corals has a strong genetic component. If coral from naturally warmer reefs breed with individuals from cooler reefs, their offspring have higher survival rates in hot water.
Nature recovery is the rule, not the exception, McEuen tells us, citing a study reviewing rates of ecosystem restoration across a range of different land and seascapes. They found that almost three quarters of ecosystems (72%) at least partially recovered in a matter of decades, and around a third made full returns to abundance.
Amy B. McEuen continues: “To prevent extinction, species need to have large populations. Specifically, we want to avoid what biologists call the ‘extinction vortex’. When population numbers dwindle, several factors interact to drive their population further down in size like a whirlpool sucking a species to eventual extinction.
“But we have time if we act now.”