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An endangered species is a species whose population is so small that it is in danger of becoming extinct. Many countries have laws offering special protection to these species (forbidding hunting, banning their habitats from development, etc.) to prevent this.
Many of these laws are controversial. Typical areas of controversy include: criteria for placing a species on the endangered species list, and criteria for removing a species from the list once its population has recovered; whether restrictions on land development constitute a "taking" of land by the government, and the related question of whether private landowners should be compensated for the loss of use of their land; and obtaining reasonable exceptions to protection laws. For instance, in the United States, three firefighters died in a forest fire while firefighters waited for a committee to give them permission to use water from a nearby stream to fight the forest fire. They were prohibited from using the stream water because doing so may have endangered the trout living in the stream.
Endangered animals:
- Chinese River Dolphin
- Israel painted frog (Discoglossus nigriventer)
- Italian spade-footed toad
- Desert slender salamander
- Ivory-billed woodpecker
- Golden marmoset
- Gorilla
- Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus)
- Mauritius parakeet (Psittacula echo)
- Orangutan
- Ripley turtle
- Steller sea lion
- Palmate newt (Triturus helvetica)
Endangered flowering plants
About 6% of the 300,000 identified species are endangered due to overcollection or destruction of habitat, for example
- Saguaro cactus (Carnegia gigantea) of North America, due to overcollection
- Chilean wine palm (Juba chilensis), due to land clearance
- African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha), due to forest clearance
- King of the Paphs Orchid (Paphiopedilum rothschildianum) of Asia, due to overcollection
- Madonna lily (Lilium candidum) of Europe, due to overcollection
- Lobster claw (Clianthus puniceus) of Australia, due to overgrazing
See also