Natural History Wanderings

Vox

Many animals aren’t endangered or extinct — they’re missing. Species detectives are trying to track them down.

As a species becomes rarer in the environment, it progresses through a series of conservation categories — from “vulnerable” to “endangered” to “critically endangered” to “extinct.” You can look up most animals in a database and see which category they fall into. The vaquita porpoise, for example, is classified as critically endangered, meaning that it’s at risk of extinction. These categories help officials decide which species need protection, and where.

But there’s another hugely important category for species that’s often overlooked. It’s simply called “lost.” Scientists use the term to describe plants, animals, and fungi that they haven’t seen for at least 10 years, or by some definitions, 50 years. In many cases, these animals are threatened with extinction — or even already extinct — but no one really knows because they’re missing.

Read more at  More than 2,000 plant and animal species have gone missing – Vox