3. An endangered species is a species of organisms facing a very
high risk of extinction. The phrase is used vaguely in common
parlance for any species fitting this description, but its use
by conservation biologists typically refers to those designated
Endangered in the IUCN Red List, where it is the second
most severe conservation status for wild populations,
following Critically Endangered. species: for example,
forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating
preserves.
4. There are currently 3079 animals and 2655 plants classified as
Endangered worldwide, compared with 1998 levels of 1102
and 1197, respectively. The amount, population trend, and
conservation status of each species can be found in the Lists of
organisms by population.
Many nations have laws offering protection to conservation
reliant
5. Conservation status
The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the
likelihood of that endangered species becoming extinct. Many
factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation
status of a species, including statistics such as the number
remaining, the overall increase or decrease in the population
over time, breeding success rates, known threats, and so on.
6. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known
worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system.
It has been estimated that over 40% of all living species on
Earth are at risk of going extinct. Internationally, 199
countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity
Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened
species. In the United States this plan is usually called a
species Recovery Plan.
7.
8. A rare species is a group of organisms that are very uncommon
or scarce. This designation may be applied to either a plant or
animal taxon, and may be distinct from the term endangered or
threatened species. Designation of a rare species may be made
by an official body, such as a national government, state, or
province. However, the term more commonly appears without
reference to specific criteria. The IUCN does not normally
make such designations, but may use the term in scientific
discussion.
9. Rarity rests on a specific species being represented by a small
number of organisms worldwide, usually fewer than 10,000.
However, a species having a very narrow endemic range
or fragmented habitat also influences the concept. Rare species
are not uncommon, since nearly 75% of known species are rare.
A species may be endangered or vulnerable, but not considered
rare if—for example—it has a large, dispersed population, but
its numbers are declining rapidly or predicted to do so. Rare
species are generally considered threatened because a small
population size is more likely to not recover from stochastic
events (things that could happen).
10.
11. In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or
of a group of organisms (taxon), normally a species. The
moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of
the last individual of the species, although the capacity to
breed and recover may have been lost before this point.
Because a species' potential range may be very large,
determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done
retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such
as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly
"re-appears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of
apparent absence.
12. Through evolution, new species arise through the process
of speciation—where new varieties of organisms arise and
thrive when they are able to find and exploit an ecological
niche—and species become extinct when they are no longer
able to survive in changing conditions or against superior
competition. The relationship between animals and their
ecological niches has been firmly established. A typical species
becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance,
although some species, called living fossils, survive with
virtually no morphological change for hundreds of millions of
years. Most extinctions have occurred naturally, prior to Homo
sapiens walking on Earth: it is estimated that 99.9% of all
species that have ever existed are now extinct.
13. A species becomes extinct when the last existing member dies.
Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no
surviving individuals that are able to reproduce and create a
new generation. A species may become functionally
extinct when only a handful of individuals survive, which
cannot reproduce due to poor health, age, sparse distribution
over a large range, a lack of individuals
In ecology, extinction is often used informally to refer to local
extinction, in which a species ceases to exist in the chosen area
of study, but still exists elsewhere. This phenomenon is also
known as extirpation. Local extinctions may be followed by a
replacement of the species taken from other locations; wolf
reintroduction is an example of this. Species which are not
extinct are termed extant.
14. Causes
As long as species have been evolving, species have been going
extinct. It is estimated that over 99.9% of all species that ever
lived are extinct. The average life-span of most species is 10
million years, although this varies widely between taxa. There
are a variety of causes that can contribute directly or indirectly
to the extinction of a species or group of species.
Extinction may take place a long time after the events that set
it in motion, a phenomenon known as extinction debt.
15. Genetics and demographic
phenomena
Population genetics and demographic phenomena affect
the evolution, and therefore the risk of extinction, of
species. Limited geographic range is the most important
determinant of genus extinction at background rates but
becomes increasingly irrelevant as mass extinction arises.
16. Genetic pollution
Purebred wild species evolved to a specific ecology can be
threatened with extinction through the process
of genetic Endemic populations can face such extinctions
when new populations are imported or selectively bred by
people, or when habitat modification brings previously isolated
species into contact. Extinction is likeliest for rare
species coming into contact with more abundant
ones; interbreeding can swamp the rarer gene pool and create
hybrids, depleting the purebred gene pool. Such extinctions are
not always apparent from morphological (non-genetic)
observations. Some degree of gene flow is a normal
evolutionarily process, nevertheless, hybridization threatens
17. Habitat degradation
Habitat degradation is currently the main anthropogenic
cause of species extinctions. The main cause of habitat
degradation worldwide is agriculture, with urban sprawl,
logging, mining and some fishing practices close behind. The
degradation of a species' habitat may alter the fitness
landscape to such an extent that the species is no longer
able to survive and becomes extinct. This may occur by
direct effects, such as the environment becoming toxic, or
indirectly, by limiting a species' ability to compete
effectively for diminished resources or against new
competitor species.
18. Predation, competition, and
disease
In the natural course of events, species become extinct for a
number of reasons, including but not limited to, extinction
of a necessary host, prey or pollinator, inter-species
competition, inability to deal with evolving diseases and
changing environmental conditions (particularly sudden
changes) which can act to introduce novel predators, or to
remove prey
19. Coextinction
Coextinction refers to the loss of a species due to the
extinction of another; for example, the extinction
of parasitic insects following the loss of their hosts.
Coextinction can also occur when a species loses
its pollinator, or to predators in a food chain who lose
their prey. "Species coextinction is a manifestation of
the interconnectedness of organisms in complex
ecosystems .
20. Climate Change
Extinction as a result of climate change has been confirmed by
fossil studies. Particularly, the extinction of amphibians
during the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse, 350 million
years ago. A 2003 review across 14 biodiversity research
centers predicted that, because of climate change, 15–37% of
land species would be "committed to extinction" by 2050. The
ecologically rich areas that would potentially suffer the
heaviest losses include the Cape Floristic Region, and
the Caribbean Basin. These areas might see a doubling of
present carbon dioxide levels and rising temperatures that
could eliminate 56,000 plant and 3,700 animal species.
21. IUCN Red forListof Nature
IUCN stands for International Union conservation
IUCN Red List refers to a specific category of threatened
species, and may include critically endangered species. The
IUCN Red List uses the term endangered species as a specific
category of imperilment, rather than as a general term. Under
the IUCN Categories and Criteria, endangered species is
between critically endangered and vulnerable. Also critically
endangered species may also be counted as endangered
species and fill all the criteria.
The more general term used by the IUCN for species at risk of
extinction is threatened species, which also includes the lessat-risk category of vulnerable species together with endangered
and critically endangered.
22. According to IUCN, term Endangered is defined as Endangered: faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future.
Some animals (according to IUCN) that fall in this category
are -:
African penguin, African wild dog, Asian elephant, Asiatic
lion, blue whale, bonobo, Bornean orangutan ,common
chimpanzee, dhole , eastern lowland gorilla, Ethiopian
wolf, hispid hare, giant otter, giant panda, goliath frog, green
sea turtle, Grevy's zebra, hyacinth macaw, Japanese
crane, Lear's macaw, Malayan tapir, markhor, Persian
leopard, proboscis monkey, pygmy hippopotamus, red-breasted
goose, Rothschild's giraffe, snow leopard, Steller's sea
lion, scopas tang , takhi , tiger , Vietnamese pheasant, volcano
rabbit, wild water buffalo