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Résumé :
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Overall, about 5% (19 species) of butterflies are threatened in the Mediterranean region. Two per cent are considered Near Threatened and more than 6% are Data Deficient. This percentage is similar to those of Mediterranean birds and it is lower than for other groups assessed in the region such as amphibians (31%), reptiles (13%), mammals (14%) and dragonflies (19%). In the Mediterranean butterflies are slightly less threatened than in Europe (8%), probably because of the higher area of remaining natural and semi-natural habitats throughout the region. Almost 80% of the species threatened with extinction are endemic. Most of the threatened species are confined to high elevations in southern Spain, the High and Middle-Atlas in Morocco and the Anti-Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey. The main current threat to Mediterranean butterflies is habitat loss due to the changes in the management of semi-natural grasslands either through intensification, overgrazing or abandonment. Other important threats are the intensity of tourism development in high mountains, specimen collection, domestic and agricultural pollution, climate change, transportation and service corridors, and mining. In many Mediterranean countries there is a significant lack of information regarding distribution, population size and trends, especially in the southern and eastern part of the region.
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