Endangered Animal Categories, Definitions, and Lists
A-Z Animals follows the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s nine categories of endangered animal lists. They are the following:
- Not Evaluated (NE): Species that have not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria for extinction risk.
- Data Deficient (DD): Species for which there is inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of their risk of extinction based on their distribution and/or population status.
- Least Concern (LC): Species that have been evaluated and do not qualify for any of the threatened categories. They are widespread and abundant in the wild.
- Near Threatened (NT): Species that do not currently qualify as threatened but are close to qualifying for a threatened category in the near future.
- Vulnerable (VU): Species facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. They meet specific criteria indicating significant population declines or restricted ranges.
- Endangered (EN): Species that are at a very high risk of extinction in the wild. They typically show severe population declines or have very small populations.
- Critically Endangered (CR): Species facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. They have experienced drastic population declines and are in immediate danger of extinction.
- Extinct in the Wild (EW): Species that no longer exist in their natural habitat but are still alive in captivity or cultivation.
- Extinct (EX): Species that no longer exist anywhere on Earth.
What Is the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)?
The IUCN is the organization that monitors the conservation status and other ecological metrics for the world’s plants and animals. Its mission is to promote sustainable use of the Earth’s resources. Founded in 1948 in Fontainebleau, France, as the Union for the Protection of Nature, the IUCN is the oldest global environmental advocacy group. Today, headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, the umbrella organization collaborates with more than 1,000 smaller nonprofits, associations, and governments representing 140 countries.
How Many Species Occupy the Earth?
The IUCN monitors the world’s species, which raises the question: How many species currently live on the planet? In 2016, researchers declared their collective belief that there are more than one trillion species on the Earth. However, scientists have only observed and described about one-thousandth of one percent of them, or 7 to 10 million. The typical lifespan of a species is 10 million years. However, some stick around for hundreds of millions of years. For example, jellyfish have lived on Earth for nearly 550 million years!
What Is a Taxon?
The IUCN frequently uses the word “taxon.” So what is it? A taxon is a group of one or more populations of a species or organism that form a unit.
What Is the Red List?
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature is perhaps best known for creating the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, a detailed accounting of the world’s vulnerable and endangered species. The list started in 1964 and details at-risk taxons, for both plants and animals, which are separated into several categories.
How Many Animals Are Currently Endangered?
You may be wondering how many animals are endangered, or what animals are endangered in 2020. For the most recent version of the list, IUCN researchers and scientists evaluated 63,837 species. Of that number, 19,817 are threatened with extinction; 3,947 landed in the Critically Endangered category; 5,766 qualified as Endangered, and over 10,000 species are listed under Vulnerable.
What Is the Endangered Species Act?
Passed in 1973, the Endangered Species Act is a federal U.S. law designed to protect threatened and endangered species that are imperiled because of a “consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.” The goal of the act is to prevent extinction and recover species to the point where they no longer need protection.