| Conservation status |
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| Extinct |
| Threatened |
| Lower Risk |
| Other categories |
| Related topics |
 Comparison ofRed List classes above andNatureServe status below  |
Athreatened species is anyspecies (includinganimals,plants andfungi) which is vulnerable toextinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by thepopulation dynamics measure ofcritical depensation, a mathematical measure ofbiomass related topopulation growth rate. This quantitative metric is one method of evaluating the degree of endangerment without direct reference to human activity.[1]
TheInternational Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories, depending on the degree to which they are threatened:[2]: 8–11
Less-than-threatened categories arenear threatened,least concern, and the no longer assigned category ofconservation dependent. Species that have not been evaluated (NE), or do not have sufficient data (data deficient) also are not considered "threatened" by the IUCN.
Althoughthreatened andvulnerable may be used interchangeably when discussing IUCN categories, the termthreatened is generally used to refer to the three categories (critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable), whilevulnerable is used to refer to the least at risk of those three categories. They may be used interchangeably in most contexts however, as all vulnerable species are threatened species (vulnerable is a category ofthreatened species); and, as the more at-risk categories of threatened species (namelyendangered andcritically endangered) must, by definition, also qualify as vulnerable species, all threatened species may also be considered vulnerable.
Threatened species are also referred to as ared-listed species, as they are listed in theIUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Subspecies, populations and stocks may also be classified as threatened.
TheCommonwealth of Australia (federal government) has legislation for categorising and protecting endangered species, namely theEnvironment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which is known in short as theEPBC Act. This Act has six categories: extinct, extinct in the wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, and conservation dependent, as defined in Section 179 of the Act.[3] These could be summarised as:[4]
TheEPBC Act also recognises and protects threatened ecosystems such as plant communities, andRamsar Convention wetlands used bymigratory birds.[4]
Lists of threatened species are drawn up under the Act and these lists are the primary reference to threatened species in Australia. TheSpecies Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) is a searchableonline database about species and ecological communities listed under theEPBC Act. It provides information on what the species looks like, its population and distribution, habitat, movements, feeding, reproduction and taxonomic comments.[5]
AThreatened Mammal Index, publicly launched on 22 April 2020 and combined as of June 2020[update] with theThreatened Bird Index (created 2018[6]) as theThreatened Species Index, is a research collaboration of the National Environmental Science Program's Threatened Species Recovery Hub, theUniversity of Queensland andBirdLife Australia. It does not show detailed data of individual species, but shows overall trends, and the data can be downloaded via aweb-app "to allow trends for different taxonomic groups or regions to be explored and compared".[7] The Index usesdata visualisation tools to show data clearly in graphic form, including a graph from 1985 to present of the main index, geographical representation, monitoring consistency and time series and species accumulation.[8] In April 2020 the Mammal Index reported that there had been a decline of more than a third of threatened mammal numbers in the 20 years between 1995 and 2016, but the data also show that targeted conservation efforts are working. TheThreatened Mammal Index "is compiled from more than 400,000 individual surveys, and contains population trends for 57 of Australia's threatened or near-threatened terrestrial and marine mammal species".[6]
Individualstates and territories of Australia are bound under the EPBC Act, but may also have legislation which gives further protection to certain species, for exampleWestern Australia'sWildlife Conservation Act 1950. Some species, such asLewin's rail (Lewinia pectoralis), are not listed as threatened species under the EPBC Act, but they may be recognised as threatened by individual states or territories.
Pests and weeds,climate change and habitat loss are some of the key threatening processes faced by native plants and animals listed by theDepartment of Planning, Industry and Environment ofNew South Wales.[9]
TheGermanFederal Agency for Nature Conservation (German:Bundesamt für Naturschutz, BfN) publishes a regional Red List for Germany of at least 48000 animals and 24000 plants and fungi. The scheme for categorization is similar to that of the IUCN, but adds a "warning list", includes species endangered to an unknown extent, and rare species that are not endangered, but are highly at risk of extinction due to the small population.[11]
Under theEndangered Species Act in the United States, "threatened" is defined as "any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range".[12] It is the less protected of the two protected categories. TheBay checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha bayensis) is an example of a threatened subspecies protected under theEndangered Species Act.
Within the U.S., state wildlife agencies have the authority under the ESA to manage species which are considered endangered or threatened within their state but not within all states, and which therefore are not included on the national list of endangered and threatened species. For example, thetrumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) is threatened in the state ofMinnesota, while large populations still remain inCanada andAlaska.[13]
Text was copied from this source, which is available under anAttribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU) licence.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| IUCNRed List |
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