A new international watch list highlighting greatest world heritage sites includes the ancient city of Machu Picchu – and animal enclosures at Dudley Zoo.

The 12 modernist Tecton buildings at the zoo are ranked among the world’s most important buildings considered to be at risk, according to the latest biannual list from the World Monuments Fund.

Built between 1935 and 1937, they include six animal enclosures. The report says: “The buildings help define the zoo’s identity and unique character while remaining a significant architectural achievement.”

The watchlist names 93 sites thought to be under threat in 47 countries including six from the British Isles. These include the Sheerness Dockyard, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, and the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Belfast. Other world sites include the Cathedral of St James in the old city of Jerusalem, Merritt Parkway, a scenic highway in Connecticut, USA, the Phajoding monastery in Bhutan, and traditional townhouses in Kyoto, Japan.

Dr Jonathan Foyle, chief executive of World Monuments Fund Britain, said: “We’ve become a world of city slickers, with urbanites now outnumbering their rural cousins.

“The knock-on effect of this mass migration on important heritage sites is twofold: towns and cities are under greater pressure to make way for their new inhabitants, resulting in sites of historic significance being torn down in the name of progress, whilst land and traditional historic buildings in the countryside are left untended and abandoned.”

According to the World Monuments Fund Britain, the list, which is the result of hours of research into sites nominated by anyone from a concerned member of the public to a conservation expert, helps to give monuments the recognition they need to survive.

The World Monuments Fund is an independent organisation established in 1965 and is dedicated to saving architectural and cultural heritage sites. It created the watch list in 1996, releasing it every two years.