An endangered species is a taxonomic group (typically at the species level) that faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future across all or a significant portion of its range, as determined by quantitative assessment criteria such as population size, rate of decline, geographic range, and degree of habitat fragmentation. In conservation biology and environmental policy, endangered status guides prioritization of management actions, legal protections, and resource allocation. Scientific evaluation commonly uses standardized frameworks (e.g., formal Red List–type criteria) based on demographic trends, reproductive rates, and known or projected threats, including habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and climate change.
Endangered penguins living off South Africa's coast have likely starved en masse due to food shortages, a study said, with some populations dropping by 95% in just eight years.
Plants & Animals
Dec 25, 2025
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163
What's the value of one animal? When a wild animal is found badly injured, the most humane option is often euthanasia to prevent further suffering. That's what usually happens, and often for good reason. Even when the resources ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 24, 2025
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120
While Australia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, we also have some of the highest extinction rates.
Plants & Animals
Dec 22, 2025
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Great apes are humans' closest relatives in the animal kingdom. As much as 98.8% of their DNA is shared, but while the number of humans living on Earth is increasing fast, other great apes are in decline. Five out of the ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 22, 2025
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27
New UniSC-led research has raised hopes of reducing the tragic incidental impacts of commercial fishing on large seabirds between Australia and South America.
Plants & Animals
Dec 15, 2025
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The thunder of a rifle echoes across the Savannah. Antelope scatter as birds of all feathers take to the air. A dull thud signals that the marksman's shot was true. The horn from the felled rhino will command more money on ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 12, 2025
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27
Indonesia's deadly flooding was an "extinction-level disturbance" for the world's rarest great ape, the tapanuli orangutan, causing catastrophic damage to its habitat and survival prospects, scientists warned on Friday.
Ecology
Dec 12, 2025
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1
On Dec. 8, Federal fisheries officials rejected a bid to designate West Coast Chinook salmon as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Plants & Animals
Dec 10, 2025
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21
Almost 8,000 animal species could be pushed closer to extinction by the end of this century as the interacting effects of climate change-driven extreme heat and human land-use change create increasingly unsuitable conditions ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 9, 2025
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0
Research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst is giving conservationists a precise picture of which habitats to target in their efforts to ensure that Southeast Asia's big cats—Bengal tigers, Indochinese leopards ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 9, 2025
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