Species Information
Threatened and Endangered Animals and Plants

Before a plant or animal species can receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, it must first be placed on the Federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. Our listing program follows a strict legal process to determine whether to list a species, depending on the degree of threat it faces. An “endangered” species is one that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. A “threatened” species is one that is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. The Service also maintains a list of plant and animals native to the United States that are candidates or proposed for possible addition to the Federal list. All of the Service’s actions, from proposals to listings to removals (“delisting”), are announced through the Federal Register.

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How many, and which, species...
 are listed in the U.S. as threatened or endangered?
 are listed in each State?
 are listed in other countries?
 are listed and are under the primary responsibility of the NOAA Fisheries (U.S. Department of Commerce)?
were the first species to be listed?
 are proposed for listing?
 are candidates for listing?
 are proposed and candidate species under the primary responsibility of the NOAA Fisheries (U.S. Department of Commerce)?
 have critical habitat designated?
 have experimental populations of reintroduced individuals?
 have section 4(d) rules to customize the protections of the ESA?
 have special rules?
 have been removed from the List (delisted) and why?
 have been reclassified (change in status)?
are proposed for a status change or delisting (this report includes proposals for new experimental populations, similarity of appearance protection, reclassification to endangered, and reclassification to threatened)?

Maps of listed, proposed or candidate species by State.

For a list of all reports available, please see TESS (our Threatened and Endangered Species database System).

The number of species listed as threatened or endangered

From TESS (our Threatened and Endangered Species database System ), a current report of all listed animals and plants

Note: Due to the large number of fields and records, these reports may take several minutes to generate. Printing tips

  Listed animals and listed plants as published in the Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants 50 CFR 17.11 and 17.12, December 1999 (pdf file)
 Our summary of the number of listed species, updated daily (our boxscore)
 General statistics for endangered species
 U.S. listed species per calendar year (from 1980 to 2002) (in PDF)
 U.S. species listings (species & populations) per calendar year (pre-1973 to 2002) (in PDF)
 Files to download (for using in spreadsheets and other programs)

These species are listed in the U.S.

Vertebrate Animals			Invertebrate Animals			Plants
	Mammals			Clams			Flowering Plants
	Birds			Snails			Conifers& Cycads
	Reptiles			Insects			Ferns & Fern Allies
	Amphibians			Arachnids			Lichens
	Fishes			Crustaceans

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Maps by U.S. State/Territory
 Number of Listed Species in each State or U.S. Territory (map)
 Number of Proposed Species in each State or U.S. Territory (map)
 Number of Candidate Species in each State or U.S. Territory (map)

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