Earth's Wild Animal Population Plummets 60 Per Cent In 44 Years: WWF

"Runaway consumption" has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth's capacity to accommodate humanity's expanding appetites, the global conservation group WWF warned Tuesday.

From 1970 to 2014, 60 per cent of all animals with a backbone -- fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals -- were wiped out by human appetites and activity, according WWF's "Living Planet" report, based on a survey of more than 4,000 species spread over 16,700 populations scattered across the globe.

"The situation is really bad, and it keeps getting worse," WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini told AFP. "The only good news is that we know exactly what is happening."