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An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, invasive species, and climate change .
Many—such as the Steller sea lion, grizzly bear, and bald eagle—are on the road to recovery because of the protections provided by this law. Under the ESA, species may be listed as either endangered or threatened. "Endangered" means a species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological species. [1] .
To learn more about why some species are endangered, and to read the shortened list, please visit Endangered Species on the WWF website. You can view a list of animals and plants that fall mainly within the two most serious categories of threat: critically endangered and endangered.
Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered species are considered to be threatened with extinction. The IUCN Red List will be updated with thousands of new species assessments and reassessments on Monday 11 December 2023.
Currently, there are more than 157,100 species on The IUCN Red List, with more than 44,000 species threatened with extinction, including 41% of amphibians, 37% of sharks and rays, 36% of reef building corals, 34% of conifers, 26% of mammals and 12% of birds.
To address this, the Red List Index (RLI) has been developed, which shows trends in the status of groups of species based only on genuine improvements or deteriorations in status of sufficient magnitude to qualify species for listing in more threatened or less threatened Red List Categories.
