What WWF is trying to do is to make sure that those species that we have the least of are not lost forever - we've already lost too many as it is.
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- About Our Earth
- Species
- About Species
- WWF's Priority Species
- Amazon manatee
- Anaconda
- Asiatic black bear
- Banteng
- Bearded vulture
- Big-leaf mahogany
- Black spider monkey
- Brown bear
- Chimpanzee
- Dhole
- Douc Langur
- Dunnart
- Elephants
- Eld's deer
- Fox: Arctic
- Freshwater stingray
- Giant muntjac
- Giant Panda
- Kangaroo
- Kouprey
- Lynx, Eurasian
- Lynx - Iberian
- Mekong giant catfish
- Pink river dolphin
- Polar Bear
- Rhinoceros
- Saola
- Shark
- Spectacled bear
- Sun bear
- Tiger
- Truong Son Muntjac
- Walrus
- Whales & Dolphins
- Wolf: Arctic
- Wolf: Maned
- Wolf: Timber / Grey
- Species
- About Our Earth
About Species
The Red List....
... is basically the world's most comprehensive inventory on the global conservation status of plants and animals.
Every 5 years the IUCN attempts to re-evaluate every species to see whether it is threatened, and to what degree that poses a threat to the species' survival.
Based on that information the IUCN assigns each species a category. These categories are:
Every 5 years the IUCN attempts to re-evaluate every species to see whether it is threatened, and to what degree that poses a threat to the species' survival.
Based on that information the IUCN assigns each species a category. These categories are:
- Extinct
- Extinct in the Wild
- Critically Endangered
- Endangered
- Vulnerable
- Threatened
- Near Threatened
- Least Concern
- Domesticated
It could be...
...a mammal, a tree, a coral, a fungus, an insect or a sponge (or any one of a gazillion other forms that life takes).
They can be found in near-to boiling water, sulphurous sludge, frozen wastelands, underground rivers, spiny forests, perilous cliffs or living almost all their life in mid-air.
- Together we and them make up life on this planet.
- And altogether we call this range and breadth of life 'biodiversity'.
- WWF's mission is make sure we don't lose this marvellous array of life, this biodiversity.
In this section we present fact sheets on a selection of species that WWF is working to protect, either directly or indirectly, through its various programmes of work.
How much diversity of life is on this Earth?
According to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), humans know about an estimated 1,562,663 different life forms on this planet. This includes:
- 5,416 mammals
- 16,000 mushrooms or fungi
- 29,300 fish
- 950,000 insects
- 287,655 plants
Many experts feel we have still to discover many, many more species - some estimates say we have yet to discover and describe millions of 'new' lifeforms.
Of the 1.5 million species, what needs saving?
The IUCN maintains the red list, which lists 16,118 endangered species.
What does Endangered mean?
Officially, threatened species are those listed as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) or Vulnerable (VU).
Practically this means:
- Critically Endangered (CR): A species facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
- Endangered (EN): A species considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
- Vulnerable (VU): A species considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
More on the IUCN Category listings...
How WWF categorizes the species it works on...