IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals

Introduction

In order to draw attention to taxa that are threatened with extinction and promote their conservation, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has been assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties and even subpopulations on a global scale, for more than four decades now.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals is the product of this work, and is compiled by the 7,000 species experts from the SSC network in co-operation with partner organizations, being BirdLife International, the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) at Conservation International (CI), NatureServe, and the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London.

The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria have several specific aims, which are, as described on the IUCN Red List website: ·

• to provide a system that can be applied consistently by different people; ·
• to improve objectivity by providing users with clear guidance on how to evaluate different factors which affect the risk of extinction; ·
• to provide a system which will facilitate comparisons across widely different taxa; ·
• to give people using threatened species lists a better understanding of how individual species were classified.

The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria are intended to be an easily and widely understood system for classifying species at high risk of global extinction. The general aim of the system is to provide an explicit, objective framework for the classification of the broadest range of species according to their extinction risk. However, while the Red List may focus attention on those taxa at the highest risk, it is not the sole means of setting priorities for conservation measures for their protection.

The status of the species described in the Red List is indicated by 9 different categories:

• Extinct (EX),
• Extinct in the Wild (EW),
• Critically Endangered (CR),
• Endangered (EN),
• Vulnerable (VU),
• Near threatened (NT),
• Least Concern (LC),
• Data Deficient (DD) and
• Not Evaluated (NE).

Classification into the categories for species that are threatened with extinction (Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered) is based on a set of a number of selective criteria, being:

• rate of decline,
• population size,
• area of geographic distribution, and
• degree of population and distribution fragmentation.

The IUCN Red List data is analyzed periodically and the results are published once every four years. The last update, the one used for this report, dates from 2004. The next major analysis is due to be published in 2008. More information regarding the IUCN Red List can be found on the IUCN Red list page: http://www.iucnredlist.org.

The IUCN can be very valuable for the Large Herbivore Foundation, mainly in the sense that it can serve as a reliable source of information on the biology and current conservation status of species. This regards information provided by the IUCN Red List itself as well as the knowledge that is provided by the Species Specialist Groups, either through their Status Plans and Action Surveys or directly by means of contact with any of their species experts.

IUCN Categories and Criteria :

• Extinct (EX)
  A taxon is Extinct when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died. A taxon is presumed Extinct when exhaustive surveys in known and/or expected habitat, at appropriate times (diurnal, seasonal, annual), throughout its historic range have failed to record an individual. Surveys should be over a time frame appropriate to the taxon's life cycle and life form.
• Extinct in wild (EW)
  A taxon is Extinct in the Wild when it is known only to survive in cultivation, in captivity or as a naturalized population (or populations) well outside the past range. A taxon is presumed Extinct in the wild when exhaustive surveys in known and/or expected habitat, at appropriate times (diurnal, seasonal, annual), throughout its historic range have failed to record an individual. Surveys should be over a time frame appropriate to the taxon's life cycle and life form.
• Critically endangered (CR)
  A taxon is Critically Endangered when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the criteria A to E for Critically Endangered (see Section V), and it is therefore considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
• Endangered (EN)
  A taxon is Endangered when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the criteria A to E for Endangered (see Section V), and it is therefore considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
• Vulnerable (VU)
  A taxon is Vulnerable when the best available evidence indicates that it meets any of the criteria A to E for Vulnerable (see Section V), and it is therefore considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
• Near threatened (NT)
  A taxon is Near Threatened when it has been evaluated against the criteria but does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable now, but is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future.
• Least concern (LC)
  A taxon is Least Concern when it has been evaluated against the criteria and does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable or Near Threatened. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.
• Data deficient (DD)
  A taxon is Data Deficient when there is inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of its risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status. A taxon in this category may be well studied, and its biology well known, but appropriate data on abundance and/or distribution are lacking. Data Deficient is therefore not a category of threat. Listing of taxa in this category indicates that more information is required and acknowledges the possibility that future research will show that threatened classification is appropriate. It is important to make positive use of whatever data are available. In many cases great care should be exercised in choosing between DD and a threatened status. If the range of a taxon is suspected to be relatively circumscribed, and a considerable period of time has elapsed since the last record of the taxon, threatened status may well be justified.
• Not evaluated (NE)
  A taxon is Not Evaluated when it is has not yet been evaluated against the criteria.