About Endangered Species
What are Endangered Species?
The IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of threatened species shows if an animal, plant, or fungi species is either least concern, near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, extinct in the wild, or extinct. They assess species to these depending on how it's doing in their natural habitats.
Data Deficient:
Data deficient is a category where they don't have information for that species.
Least Concern:
Least concern is a category where a species is not endangered or threatened, so it is not facing risk in the wild.
Near Threatened:
Near threatened is a category where species are likely to become threatened in the near future.
Vulnerable:
Vulnerable is a category where species are facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
Endangered:
Endangered is a category where species are facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
Critically Endangered:
Critically endangered is a category where species are facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
Extinct in the Wild:
Extinct in the wild is a category where species no longer live in the wild so they only live in cultivation/captivity.
Extinct:
Extinct is a category where species no longer exists in the wild or captivity/cultivation.
An example is the Javan Rhino. The Javan Rhino is critically endangered. That means there are very few of that species left and are at extremely high risk of going extinct. There is only about 67 left in the whole world! The Javan Rhino is critically endangered because of humans mostly. The Javan Rhino's numbers a decreasing because of Poaching. People illegally hunt these animals for their horns and now are rarely seen.
A Javan Rhino almost completely submerged in water on the island of Java, Indonesia.
Photo from: WWF (world wildlife fund)