Wikipedia:Conservation status

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This page is part of the Manual of Style, and is considered a guideline for Wikipedia. The consensus of many editors formed the conventions described here. Wikipedia articles should heed these guidelines. Feel free to update this page as needed, but please use the discussion page to propose major changes.

These conservation status categories are used in Wikipedia articles.

For threatened species and species believed to have become extinct after 1500, the categories are based on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List 1994 or 2001 categories. Such species should be classified using the IUCN criteria directly using the most up-to-date database; the criteria given here are only a summary.

Lower Risk (LR): Has been evaluated but does not qualify for Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered. Divided into three subcategories, cd (Conservation Dependent), where cessation of current conservation measures could result in it being classified at a higher risk level, nt (Near Threatened), close to qualifying for listing as Vulnerable but not fully meeting those criteria, and lc (Least Concern) where neither of cd or nt apply. Least Concern is thus a catch-all category which includes common species as well as those for which there may be conservation concern, but which do not warrant a higher category. Examples: LRcd: Coast Redwood; LRnt: Bigcone Douglas-fir; LRlc: Leopard, Orca.

Vulnerable (VU): faces a high risk of extinction in the medium-term. Examples: Ring-tailed Lemur, Great White Shark.

Endangered (EN): faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future. Examples: Blue Whale, Desert Bighorn Sheep, Giant Panda, Black-footed ferret (as of September 20, 2005, downgraded from Extinct in the Wild).

Critical (Wikipedia's term) or Critically Endangered (IUCN's term) (CR): faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Examples: Slender-billed Curlew, Spanish Lynx, Red Wolf.

Extinct in the Wild (EW): captive individuals survive, and/or the species has been reintroduced outside its former natural range, but the species otherwise matches the criteria for "Extinct", such that no free-living, natural population is believed to exist. "Extirpated" is used for species that still exist in the wild but not in a particular area where they were once common. Examples: Hawaiian Crow, Scimitar Oryx.

Extinct (EX): extensive and appropriate surveys have failed to record any living members. The last remaining member is believed to have died later than 1500. Examples: Thylacine, Dodo, Moa, Huia.

Data Deficient (DD): a taxon is listed as Data deficient when there is inadequate information to make an assessment of its risk category, either through lack of knowledge of population size, threats to it, or to taxonomic uncertainty of the validity of the taxon, but where indications of a major threat or decline do not exist either. Examples: Scottish Crossbill (taxonomic uncertainty with respect to Parrot Crossbill), Yunnan Cypress (lack of knowledge of wild population size but widespread as ornamental tree).

The following additional categories cover species that fall outside the scope of the IUCN Red List. The IUCN criteria are authoritative and should be used directly if applicable.

Domesticated: no immediate threat to the survival of the species. This category overlaps Least Concern but has been applied to humans and domesticated animals, for which the IUCN criteria are not valid. Examples: Human, Cat, Dog, Llama. However many species will use the IUCN category for the wild population. E.g. Golden Hamster.

Critical (Possibly Extinct) CR (PE), a semi-official category introduced by BirdLife International and likely to be adopted by other authorities including the IUCN in the near future. The weight of evidence points against the continuing existence of the taxon, but final surveys are still pending. Examples: Eskimo Curlew, Madagascar Pochard, Turquoise-throated Puffleg.

Prehistoric: somewhere between Extinct and Fossil: the species went extinct before 1500. A major part of the species' remains exist in a subfossil state. This is of particular use in human evolution, as molecular analysis of the specimens can be compared against that of other modern and prehistoric specimens. Examples: Mammuthus exilis, Cave lion, the Neanderthal human, most moa and Hawaiian honeycreeper extinctions. Generally speaking, this encompasses pre-Western contact Late Quaternary extinctions.

Fossil: The species is only known from completely fossilized material records; there may be a few chance finds of preserved tissue, but organic matter of these species is generally nonexistent and has been replaced by minerals. Examples: Tyrannosaurus rex, Australopithecus, Ammonites.

It should be noted that scientific literature does not usually distinguish between fossil and subfossil specimens. Generally, if molecular analysis or radiocarbon dating can be routinely carried out on specimens of a taxon, the taxon is classified as "Prehistoric". The recent discoveries of what seems to be minute amounts of preserved soft tissue in some dinosaur specimens, on the other hand, would not alter their "Fossil" status. As a rule of thumb, taxa extinct in the recent 50-30.000 years would possibly qualify as "Prehistoric".

[edit] Examples and categories

As explained in the usage for parameter status the old templates should be replaced by the new status codes. Here's a table allowing to track this matter. If the template column shows a category link this template adds (or at least added) pages to this category, and allows (or at least allowed) to disable this feature in examples by an empty category= parameter.

template	output	code
{{StatusSecure}} links talk view	secure	secure
{{StatusDomesticated}} category links talk view	DOM	DOM
{{StatusConcern}} category links talk view	LR	LR
{{StatusLeastConcern}} links talk view	LC	LC or LR/lc
{{StatusNearConcern}} links talk view	NT	NT or LR/nt
{{StatusConserveConcern}} links talk view	LR/cd	LR/cd
{{StatusVulnerable}} links talk view	VU	VU
{{StatusEndangered}} category links talk view	EN	EN
{{StatusCritical}} category links talk view	Conservation status: Critical	CR
{{StatusExtinctW}} category links talk view	EW	EW
{{ StatusExtinct`\|`when=year }} links talk view	Extinct (year)	EX extinct = <date>
{{StatusData}} links talk view	DD	DD
{{StatusUnknown}} links talk view	NE	NE
{{StatusFossil}} links talk view	fossil	fossil_range = <start-end>
{{StatusPrehistoric}} links talk view	pre	pre
{{StatusSeeText}} links talk view	text	text