- Summary- Drop caused by climate change, habitat loss, pollution- Nature was, still is, in dire straits -WWF-UK director- Rich nations to be asked for support at Montreal summitLONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The world's wildlife populations have declined by more than two-thirds since 1970 as forests have been cleared and oceans polluted, according to an assessment released on Thursday.The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report, which used 2018 data from ZSL on the status of 32,000 wildlife populations covering more than 5,000 species, found that population sizes had declined by 69% on average.Deforestation, human exploitation, pollution, and climate change were the biggest drivers of the loss.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comWildlife populations in Latin American and the Caribbean were hit especially hard, experiencing a 94% drop in just five decades.While the eastern lowland gorilla population in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Kahuzi-Biega National Park fell by 80% between 1994 and 2019 due to bushmeat hunting, the mountain gorilla population near Virunga National Park increased from around 400 individuals in 2010 to over 600 by 2018."