Founded in 1964, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Redlist was established to ensure the correct amount of conservation focus is given to species according to their population. Every species discovered is given one out of seven tags, from least concern, to extinct extinct. These seven levels are:
- Least Concern: This status is given to species that are not a focus of conservation at all- it includes species which are common as well as invasive species. This means that there will not be any conservation efforts towards these species. (This does not always hold true. The house sparrow (passer domesticus) even though is least concern, its population trend in India is declining and thus there are education programmes and conservation initiatives in favour of the sparrows.
- Examples: house sparrow, european robin, field mouse, horse fly, etc.
- Near Threatened: This status is given to animals which are threatened to become endangered species. This could be possible in one of the following scenarios:
- (a) the animal’s population is low, but not enough to be classified as vulnerable or endangered.
- (b) The animals population trend is declining and not stable or increasing.
- Examples: spotted owl, Atlantic walrus, dayak fruit bat, etc.
- Vulnerable: This status is given to species which by this point have been confirmed to having been reduced by at least 30% in the last 10 years. These animals have a high risk of becoming critically endangered in the near future, without further human intervention.
- Examples- leopard, nicobar megapode, etc.
- Endangered: This status is given to species which by this point have been confirmed to having been reduced by at least 50% in the last 10 years. Most of the time, such animals become part of the wildlife protection act of the concerned state, because usually population trends of animals under this category is declining.
- Examples of such animals are mountain gorilla, okapi, indian elephant.
- Critically Endangered: This status is given to species with less than 2,000 individuals in the wild. 31 of all counted critically endangered species have the tag ‘possibly extinct’ By this point, these animals cannot revive by themselves in the wild; captive breeding is the only hope.
- Examples: great indian bustard, bengal florican, lesser florican
- Extinct in the wild: This tag is given to animals which have a count of 0 in the wild.
- Extinct: This status is given to animals that have been completely wiped out.