I keep hearing it…But, what does it mean when a species is “threatened”?

No, no…this does not mean that a predator projected ill intentions that will cause harm to its prey. It really means that a species is placed into one of three categories as part of the Threatened sub-set according to the ICUN. The catalyst is a decreasing population of that species through all, or a significant portion, of its range. There are three tiers of threatened. They are Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable. I will provide more on these definitions later.

Plants and animals on the list can change from on category to another. Animals can be “rediscovered” or one can have a surviving population deteriorate. Also, species can be “delisted” by the proper authority if sufficient data points to healthy and recovered populations. Most of the time the populations get worse. 99% of the threatened species can be linked directly to human complacency.

Read the full article here.