Kyne, P. M. Extinction risk categories and how to cite them.
The resulting assessments place each species in one of the following categories of extinction risk: extinct (EX); extinct in the wild (EW); critically endangered (CR); endangered (EN); vulnerable (VU); near threatened (NT); least concern (LC); and data deficient (DD).
You might argue that to call such relics evidence of "extinction" is a category mistake – they're evidence of human continuity and change – but I think the point she is interested in, and returns to all over the globe, is human rapacity.
Biological responses to global change fall into three categories: extinction, change in distribution and adaptation (genetic or plastic) to the new environmental conditions.
On average, 2.4 species per year have moved one Red List category towards extinction in recent decades, representing a substantial increase in extinction risk across this set of species, report the scientists.
The Chinese pufferfish (Takifugu chinensis), one of the world's most toxic fish, and a fellow victim of sashimi demand, has been moved to 'critically endangered' - the final category before extinction.
The reclassification means that four out of the six non-human great ape species ― the Eastern gorilla, Western gorilla, Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan ― are now listed by IUCN as critically endangered, the closest category to extinction.
Our finding that species facing higher categories of extinction risk require less investment for downlisting than do those in lower categories suggests that in many cases such analyses will prioritize actions for the most threatened species first.
The nine mutually-exclusive categories of extinction risk are: Not Evaluated (NE); Data Deficient (DD); Least Concern (LC); Near Threatened (NT); Vulnerable (VU); Endangered (EN); Critically Endangered (CR); Extinct in the Wild (EW); and Extinct (EX).
Brands that rank second, third or lower in their categories face extinction as shoppers' fervor for premium-priced products gives way to a skepticism that ranks value above a famous name or a catchy jingle.
