The Endangered Species Act, however, does have legal force in the U.S. “We produce data,” he says, “and then encourage society at large to consider those assessments in their decision-making.” The IUCN is all about producing good science-it doesn’t, by itself, have legal force. “It’s a fairly involved scientific exercise,” he says. Rodriguez says that the group trains scientists intensively how to make these determinations. The organization then decides where to place the animal on a spectrum, from worst to best: extinct, extinct in the wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near threatened, and least concern.Īnimals that are critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable are all considered “threatened.” To make their decisions, the group considers data such as population size, number of breeding adults, geographic range, and the like. This commission consists of more than 8,000 scientists in 162 countries.
The IUCN periodically assesses every animal for which there is enough data to make an informed decision, explains Jon Paul Rodríguez, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. These two classification systems are both used for the protection of animals, but they are different-here’s how we decide which animals are endangered and threatened. It’s the first animal ever to revert to a “vulnerable” listing after being classified as extinct in the wild. By 2011, there were more than 1,000 of them living in the wild, and the IUCN reclassified it as “vulnerable,” a significant improvement in its conservation status. Reintroduction efforts began in 1980, and its numbers quickly grew. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which uses hard data to assess the conservation status of wildlife around the world, classified it then as “extinct in the wild.”īut the Arabian oryx held on in private reserves and zoos around the world. It was hit even harder than the bald eagle, hunted (mostly for trophies) until it disappeared from its native range in the Middle East in the 1960s. Then there’s the Arabian oryx, a medium-sized antelope with long, straight horns.
Thirty four years later, bald eagles had recovered sufficiently to be removed from listing. banned DDT in 1972, and the bird was protected under the U.S. The eagle’s populations once dwindled to fewer than 500 nesting pairs, thanks in part to the widespread use of a pesticide called DDT, which thinned their eggs, as well as habitat loss and hunting. Take the American bald eagle, whose story you may be familiar with-or the Arabian oryx. When it comes to wildlife conservation, miracles can happen.