37,000 'alien species' catalogued worldwide, 10% aggressively harmful: UN

United Nations Convention on Biodiversity said that 10 percent of the alien species worldwide are aggressively harmful, or "invasive".

From rats, cats and mosquitoes to a rogue's gallery of plants, a major scientific assessment Monday catalogued more than 37,000 alien species worldwide, 10 percent of them classified as aggressively harmful, or "invasive".

The flag of the United Nations flutters. (Reuters)

Humanity's growing population, economic growth, land-use change and climate change, "will increase the frequency and extent of biological invasions and the impacts of invasive alien species", the intergovernmental science advisory panel for the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, known by its acronym IPBES, warned in a report.