Activity: What is endangered?

Cassie with some threatened species

On SCOPE's Endangered Species episode, you saw Cassie explain how we define 'endangered'.

Watch this clip.

The Low Down

There are more than a million animal and plant species in the world, and while lots of them - including humans - are thriving, the bad news is over 16,000 of them are what scientists call threatened. But, what exactly does 'threatened' mean? And how do scientists decide if a species is threatened? Well, they consider lots of information about its populations, and then put the species into a category based on its chances of surviving into the future. The name of the category that a species is placed in is also called its 'conservation status'. All of the following are different degrees of 'threatened'.

Vulnerable

These species are thought to have a 10% chance of becoming extinct in the next 100 years.

One of ways a species qualifies as being vulnerable is by having lost 50% of its global population in the past 20 years.

Endangered

Endangered species have around a 20% chance of becoming extinct during the next 20 years, or over 5 generations.

Critically Endangered

Critically endangered species - like the Orange-Bellied Parrot - have a 50% chance of extinction within just five years! Another criterion a species will have to meet to be classed as critically endangered is having lost 80% of its members in the past 10 years, whole species almost disappearing in what's probably less than your lifetime.

Extinct in the Wild

You mightn't believe it, but it's actually possible for a species to get even closer to extinction.

Animals which exist only in captivity are called 'extinct in the wild', and an example is the African Scimitar Oryx.

Extinct

Of course, species which are thought to be now gone entirely, we call 'extinct' and unfortunately there are plenty of extinct animals.