Conservation status.

How imperiled is each species? AmphibiaWeb strives to contribute to the conservation of amphibians worldwide. One way to do this is to bring together different sources of information on amphibians; this section, "Conservation Status" strives to do just this. We ask authors to bring together any official listings of a species, such as IUCN (World Conservation Union), other international, or national, or regional status. In addition, we ask them to rank the species themselves using a ranking category that we adopted from NatureServe and its Natural Heritage Network. Below you will find an explanation for the different categories and levels of conservation status.

Introduction
NatureServe Explorer
AmphibiaWeb status
IUCN status
CITES status
National status
Regional Status

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Introduction.

Amphibian declines have worried many people around the world and the issue has motivated many people to assess the current status of some amphibians. These efforts have lead some international, national and local organizations to list species under different categories. We at AmphibiaWeb are trying to bring all of these sources together under one homepage for each species.

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NatureServe Explorer

NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals, and ecological communities of the United States and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.

AmphibiaWeb links all U.S. and Canadian species to NatureServe Explorer.

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AmphibiaWeb Status.

Since many species may not have been reviewed by an agency, organization or institution, we designate a ranking for each non-U.S. and non-Canadian species, based on the conservation status rankings developed by NatureServe and its Natural Heritage Network. U.S. and Canadian species accounts have direct links to the comprehensive reports on the NatureServe Explorer Web site. For other species, we rely on the expert knowledge of our species account authors to make the best choice of categories, given the available knowledge. Below are the definitions used for each category. If you would like to see more about the ranking system please visit the NatureServe Explorer web site, which also provides NatureServe's conservation status assessments for all U.S. and Canadian amphibian species.

Conservation Status

GX	Presumed Extinct	Not located despite intensive searches.
GH	Possibly Extinct	Of historical occurrence; still some hope of rediscovery.
G1	Critically Imperiled	Typically 5 or fewer occurrences or 1,000 or fewer individuals.
G2	Imperiled	Typically 6 to 20 occurrences or 1,000 to 3,000 individuals.
G3	Vulnerable	Rare; typically 21 to 100 occurrences or 3,000 to 10,000 individuals.
G4	Apparently Secure	Uncommon but not rare; some cause for long-term concern; usually more than 100 occurrences and 10,000 individuals.
G5	Secure	Common; widespread and abundant.

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IUCN status.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has their own system for evaluating the status of a species. Below, you can see the categories they use. We ask each author to search the IUCN Web site. If you would like more information please visit the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species site.

Here is the list of possible IUCN Red List categories. More information about these categories is here.

Not Evaluated (NE)
Data Deficient (DD)
Lower Risk (LR) Conservation Dependent (cd)
Lower Risk (LR) Near Threatened (nt)
Lower Risk (LR) Least Concern (lc)
Vulnerable (VU)
Endangered (EN)
Critically Endangered (CR)
Extinct in the Wild (EW)
Extinct (EX)

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CITES status.

Some amphibians are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. This document prevents the trade of endangered flora and fauna and lists several amphibians. We ask our species account authors to search their Web site. For more information and to search the CITES fauna list, go to CITES Web site.

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National status.

Some amphibians have a national conservation status. Many governments have given amphibians special conservation status. For example, in the United States, you can check the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Web pages for information:

Query page: http://ecos.fws.gov/servlet/TESSSpeciesReport/type
Home page: http://www.fws.gov/
Endangered species page: http://endangered.fws.gov/index.html

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Regional status.

Some amphibians have regional protection. We ask our authors to gather as much local information as possible, and this includes any local or regional protection amphibians might have. For example, to obtain regional status in California, authors consult the California Department of Fish and Game Web site.

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