The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
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. A series of Regional Red Lists, which assess the risk of extinction to species within a political management unit, are also produced by countries and organizations.
The tamaraw or Mindoro dwarf buffalo is a small buffalo belonging to the family Bovidae. It is endemic to the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, and is the only endemic Philippine bovine. It is believed, however, to have once also thrived on the larger island of Luzon. The tamaraw was originally found all over Mindoro, from sea level up to the mountains, but because of human habitation, hunting, and logging, it is now restricted to only a few remote grassy plains and is now a critically endangered species.
The Scottish crossbill is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is endemic to the Caledonian Forests of Scotland, and is the only terrestrial vertebrate species endemic to the United Kingdom. The Scottish crossbill was confirmed as a unique species in August 2006, on the basis of having a distinctive bird song.
The Texas tortoise is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species G. berlandieri is one of six species of tortoises that are native to North America.
Speke's gazelle is the smallest of the gazelle species. It is confined to the Horn of Africa, where it inhabits stony brush, grass steppes, and semi deserts. This species has been sometimes regarded as a subspecies of the Dorcas gazelle, though this is now widely disregarded. Severe habitat fragmentation means it is now impossible to assess the natural migratory or nomadic patterns of G. spekei. Its numbers are under threat, and despite an increase in population, the IUCN in 2007 announced its status had changed from vulnerable to endangered. A captive population is maintained, and the wild population exists in the lower tens of thousands. As of 2008, this gazelle is classified as endangered under the IUCN Red List.
The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation status: not simply the number of individuals remaining, but the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, and known threats. Various systems of conservation status are in use at international, multi-country, national and local levels, as well as for consumer use such as sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification. The two international systems are by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The deepwater cisco was one of the largest ciscoes in the Great Lakes. Its average length was 30 cm and it was about 1.0 kilogram in weight. Occurring only in Lakes Huron and Michigan, and inhabiting waters between 50 and 150 metres deep, it was difficult to distinguish from other ciscoes and was possibly the same species as the shortjaw cisco. The deepwater cisco was distinguished by usually having fewer than 33 gill rakers, relatively long pectoral fins, and unpigmented jaws. It was a silvery colour with a pink or purple lustre and a green or blue back. It spawned in August and September, earlier than most other ciscoes. Not much is known about its specific behaviors. Its diet consisted of Mysis relicta, fingernail clams, and various aquatic insects. Because of its large size, the deepwater cisco was heavily fished commercially.
The blackfin cisco was a North American salmonid fish in the freshwater whitefish sub-family Coregoninae. This silvery, deep-bodied fish with black fins, large eyes, a blunt snout and a terminal mouth, was one of the largest forms of ciscoes. The blackfin cisco used to inhabit the Great Lakes of North America until recently, but has been reported to have gone extinct. The blackfin cisco is a member of the C. artedi complex, whose taxonomy has not yet been resolved, and it may not represent a valid species.
A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. They do not qualify as threatened, near threatened, or conservation dependent.
A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify for the threatened status.
A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessarily indicate that the species has not been extensively studied, but it usually indicates that little or no information is available on the abundance and distribution of the species. It can also indicate uncertainty about the taxonomic classification of an organism; for example, the IUCN classifies the orca as "data deficient" because of the likelihood that two or more types of the whale are separate species.
A species that is extinct in the wild (EW) is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as only consisting of living members kept in captivity or as a naturalized population outside its historic range. Classification requires exhaustive surveys conducted within the species' known habitat with consideration given to seasonality, time of day, and life cycle. Once a species is classified as EW, the only way for it to be downgraded is through reintroduction.
The small-toothed mole is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is found in Di Linh, in southern Vietnam, and Rakho near the border of Vietnam and China, and in southern Yunnan, China, near the Vietnamese border. It is likely that it has a broader distribution, especially in places between the currently known locations.
Macroperipatus insularis is a species of velvet worm in the Peripatidae family. It is found in Jamaica, and Hispaniola. The original description of this species is based on a female specimen, 55 mm long, with 30 pairs of legs.
Mesoperipatus is a monospecific genus of velvet worm in the Peripatidae family, containing a single species Mesoperipatus tholloni. It is found in Gabon, making it the only known species of velvet worm in the tropics of Africa, and the only known species of peripatid velvet worm in Africa. Females of this species have 24 to 27 pairs of legs; males have 23 or 24. This species is viviparous, but too little is known of its embryology to describe its reproductive mode in any more detail; the presence of a placenta, for example, has not been confirmed.
Nitocrella slovenica is a species of harpacticoid copepod in the family Ameiridae.
Nitocrella is a genus of copepod. Although most other genera in the family Ameiridae are marine, species of Nitocrella are almost exclusively found in subterranean fresh water or brackish water. More than 80 species are included in the genus, including two which are listed as vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List:
Endangered species, as classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), are species which have been categorized as very likely to become extinct in their known native ranges in the near future. On the IUCN Red List, endangered is the second-most severe conservation status for wild populations in the IUCN's schema after critically endangered. In 2012, the IUCN Red List featured 3,079 animal and 2,655 plant species as endangered worldwide. The figures for 1998 were 1,102 and 1,197 respectively.
