The conservation status of different group of animals which I had mentioned in past on my blogs has a very important role in studies of animals. This gives an idea whether an animal(or a group of animal) which we are discussing is still alive or it used to live once upon a time, and if the animal is still here what are the chances that they will become extinct(no more living animal) in near future.
These lists have been made by taking into account so many factors like overall increase or decrease in the population, breeding rate, loss of habitat, external and internal threats and not only by counting the total number of population of a particular animal.
The IUCN red list is the best-known conservation status listing which are accepted by the governing bodies of most countries. This list contains avast number of animals and even included species which became extinct since 500 AD. There are 9 different categories in IUCN red list:
Extinct (EX): The animals in this category are not present in live form any where. There are no doubt that the last individual of this category of animals has died. These data need to be collected after exhaustive surveys.
Extinct in the Wild (EW): These type of animals are generally not present in their natural habitat i.e, in the wild. They can be found only in cultivation or in captivity.
Critically Endangered (CR): Though they have not became extinct in the wild but there are extremely high risk of being so.
Endangered (EN): These animals are in very high risk of extinction in the wild. Risk wise they are less riskier than the CR category.
Vulnerable (VU): They are in very high risk of going into the endangered list as per the best available evidences.
Near threatened (NT): This category of animals are currently not threatened as of now, but there are a heavy chance that they will be in the threatened category by very near future due to many reasons.
Least Concern (LC): The animals in this segment are generally widespread and abundant on earth. So the name also suggest we don’t need to be worried about their conversation as of yet.
Data Deficient (DD): In case there are deficiencies in the available data and thus the information becomes inadequate. It may happen that these animals are well studied and biology of these animals are known but appropriate data regarding their habitat is always lacking.
Not Evaluated (NE): It is under this category when they are not evaluated against the criteria.
The main purpose of this list is to provide an framework for classification of different animals on their risk of extinction from the planet. Though the list may prompt us to focus on the animals on the highest ranks it is not the sole means of setting priorities.
This red list is analyzed and result are published in every 4 years. You can find the latest list by visiting the official site http://www.iucnredlist.org. I have mentioned animal in general lay man’s term. The original term which is used by IUCN is taxon. It is much more technically correct to use taxon in case of animals for biological usages.
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