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 [12/2005] [PDF] 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”) [2/2004] [PDF], are announced through the Federal Register.

(Please note: To view PDF documents, you may need to download and install the Adobe Acrobat Reader, free from Adobe, Inc.)

For more information on a particular species, you may want to check out our Species in the Spotlight page. This page focuses on those species most often in the news.

Pine Ecosystem Conservation Handbook for the Gopher Tortoise Forest Ecosystem Conservation Handbook for Birds in Georgia

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 (NMFS)?
were the first species to be listed?
are proposed for listing?
 are candidates for listing?
 are proposed species under the primary responsibility of the NOAA Fisheries (NMFS)?
 have critical habitat designated?
have experimental populations of reintroduced individuals?
 have special rules under section 4(d) 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 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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The number of species listed as threatened or endangered

A current report of all listed animals and plants from TESS (our Threatened and Endangered Species Database System )

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

  Listed animals and listed plants as published in the Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants 50 CFR 17.11 and 17.12, November 2005 (PDF)
 Our summary of the number of listed species, updated daily (boxscore)
 General statistics for endangered species

These species are listed in the U.S.

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

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

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