With the rise in global temperature, animals around the world are facing a near extinction situation. With Australian and Amazonian wildfires, hurricane Ida, California fire, Texas hailstorm, and Lousiana Flooding at our hands; climate change is affecting not only us with a 10 billion dollar loss but also endangered animals with the loss of habitat. Endangered animals are those that are on the verge of extinction in the near future either worldwide or in a particular area. Some of the animals enter the endangered list because of habitat loss or poaching or attacks from invasive species.

IUCN

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature has a red list for all endangered animals. According to IUCN, there are more than 40,000 species facing extinction with only 28% of them being assessed. 
• The red list provided by IUCN works as a barometer for life, it was established in 1964 and has become the source of information for the global conservation of animals. It helps in indicating the health of the biodiversity of animals globally.
• It has been a powerful tool to gather information and put in the effort and action to make biodiversity conversation policies that are critical to our survival.
• They move forward with the goal of assessing 160,000 species to provide the most revised health indication of the world’s biodiversity.

Different Types and Categories of Endangered Animals:

• Extinct: These are the species of animals that do not exist in the world anymore, they have been searched for thoroughly by scientists, and not even a single individual is being found. But what is interesting is that around 99% of the species of organism that have lived on earth for the past 5 billion years have gone extinct.
• Extinct in the wild: These are the types of species that only have survived in captivity under preserved conditions by the rangers. 
• Critically Endangered: These are the species that are on the verge of extinction in the wild but they are not completely extinct till now.
• Endangered: These are the species that are at high risk of becoming extinct in the wild but they are not completely extinct till now.
• Vulnerable: These are the kind of species that are considered being at high risk of endangerment due to human-caused extinction if not intervened and survived by the conservationists.
• Near threatened: These are the species that scientists consider to be endangered in the future.
• Least Concern: The species that fall into this category are abundant in population and are not facing any decline.
• Data Deficient: These are the species that have not been researched enough to be categorized in any of the groups.

How many species live on planet earth?

IUCN observes all the species present in the world to document them. A study in 2011 had found that 8.7 million species on earth. Moreover, a species has only a limited amount of time on planet earth but it has been seen that jellyfish (Chrysaora) have been living on planet earth for about 550 million years.

What is the Endangered Species Act?

• It is an act passed in 1973 enacted by the United States federal law. It was designed to shield threatened and endangered animals that are in hazardous situations due to the consequences of human action and development followed by unconscionable concern or conservation.
• The goal of the act is to prevent the extinction of species and to protect animals and help them get back to their natural habitat without any external support.
• It helps in both domestic and international conservation movement and accordion to world wildlife it has a stellar success rate of 99% species being saved from extinction.

Some of the critically endangered animals are as follows: 

• Cotton-top Tamarin: They are found at the edges of tropical forests.
• Chinese Alligator: These type of alligators are different from other alligators as they are armored everywhere even on their bellies.
• Bornean Orang-utan: They tend to use large leaves as umbrellas.

Some of the endangered animals around the globe are as follows:

• Sharks: Interestingly they do not have any bones in their body.
• Aye- Aye: They were thought to be extinct till 1957
• Black-Footed Ferret: They are the only animal native to North America.

Conclusion

Conservation of endangered animals starts with two main areas: protecting wildlife and protecting habitat. We can save species from the verge of extinction without sacrificing anything. It is important to take care of the animals around us for they create and also conserve our ecosystem.