What does endangered mean? (2024)

Endangered is a word used to describe plant and animal species that are not doing very well. Animals usually become endangered because of over hunting or the destruction of their habitat.

An animal that is endangered is close to extinction, meaning there aren't very many of that type of animal left in the world.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. The IUCN maintains the Red List, which lists over 26 000 species that are threatened with extinction. The Red List is the world’s most comprehensive inventory on the global conservation status of animals and plants. Every four years the IUCN evaluates the population status of each species and the threats to their survival. Based on this information the IUCN assigns each species a category.

IUCN Red list of threatened species

IUCN categories

  • Extinct (EX) – No known individuals remaining
  • Extinct in the wild (EW) – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range
  • Critically endangered (CR) – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild
  • Endangered (EN) – High risk of extinction in the wild
  • Vulnerable (VU) – High risk of endangerment in the wild
  • Near threatened (NT) – Likely to become endangered in the near future
  • Least concern (LC) – Lowest risk (Does not qualify for a more at-risk category; widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.)
  • Data deficient (DD) – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction
  • Not evaluated (NE) – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria
What does endangered mean? (2024)

FAQs

What does it mean to become endangered? ›

IPA guide. An animal that is endangered is close to extinction — meaning there aren't very many of that type of animal left in the world. This word is used mostly to describe animal species that are not doing very well: animals usually become endangered because of over hunting or the destruction of their habitat.

What does it mean for a person to be endangered? ›

The person is believed to be in danger because of age, health, mental or physical disability, environment, weather conditions, or in the company of a potentially dangerous person of some other factor that may expose the person to possible harm or injury.

What is endangered with example? ›

Endangered species are the organisms whose number have reduced drastically and if not conserved will become extinct. The two examples of endangered species are Amur tiger, red panda and Asiatic elephant. Was this answer helpful? Give any 'two' examples of endangered species.

What is the meaning of endangered status? ›

A species considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

What does in endangered mean? ›

“Endangered” means a species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. “Threatened” means a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.

How do you explain endangered? ›

Endangered is a word used to describe plant and animal species that are not doing very well. Animals usually become endangered because of over hunting or the destruction of their habitat. An animal that is endangered is close to extinction, meaning there aren't very many of that type of animal left in the world.

Does endangered mean rare? ›

A species may be endangered or vulnerable, but not considered rare if it has a large, dispersed population. IUCN uses the term "rare" as a designation for species found in isolated geographical locations.

How endangered are humans? ›

Risk estimates. Given the limitations of ordinary observation and modeling, expert elicitation is frequently used instead to obtain probability estimates. Humanity has a 95% probability of being extinct in 7,800,000 years, according to J.

What does endangered mean in one word? ›

in-ˈdān-jərd. Definition of endangered. as in vulnerable. being in a situation where one is likely to meet with harm a daring attempt to rescue the endangered passengers from the burning boat. vulnerable.

What does feeling endangered mean? ›

In danger, at risk, said of something where there is a strong possibility something bad will happen to it (for example, a species in danger of going extinct) Wiktionary.

How do you become endangered? ›

An endangered species is a type of organism that is threatened by extinction. Species become endangered for two main reasons: loss of habitat and loss of genetic variation. A loss of habitat can happen naturally. Nonavian dinosaurs, for instance, lost their habitat about 65 million years ago.

What does it take to be endangered? ›

According to the IUCN, an endangered species is one that meets any one of the following criteria: a 50–70% population decrease over 10 years, a total geographic area less than 5,000 km2 (or local population area less than 500 km2), a population size less than 2,500 adults, a restricted population of 250 adults, or a ...

What does it mean to take an endangered species? ›

Take as defined under the ESA means "to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct." Incidental take is an unintentional, but not unexpected, taking.

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