A species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species can be loosely defined as a group of individual organisms that have very similar appearance, anatomy, physiology and genetics.

It could be…

…a mammal, a tree, a coral, a fungus, an insect or a sponge (or any one of a gazillion other forms that life takes).

They can be found in near-to boiling water, sulphurous sludge, frozen wastelands, underground rivers, spiny forests, perilous cliffs or living almost all their life in mid-air.

• Together we and them make up life on this planet.
• And altogether we call this range and breadth of life ‘biodiversity’.
• WWF’s mission is make sure we don’t lose this marvellous array of life, this biodiversity.

In this section we present fact sheets on a selection of species that WWF is working to protect, either directly or indirectly, through its various programmes of work.

How much diversity of life is on this Earth?
According to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), humans know about an estimated 1,562,663 different life forms on this planet.  This includes:

• 5,416 mammals
• 16,000 mushrooms or fungi
• 29,300 fish
• 950,000 insects
• 287,655 plants

Many experts feel we have still to discover many, many more species - some estimates say we have yet to discover and describe millions of ‘new’ lifeforms.

Of the 1.5 million species, what needs saving?
The IUCN maintains the red list, which lists 16,118 endangered species.

What does Endangered mean?
Officially, threatened species are those listed as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) or Vulnerable (VU).

Practically this means:

• Critically Endangered (CR)
  A species facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
• Endangered (EN)
  A species considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.
• Vulnerable (VU)
  A species considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

This has been an article from WWF and more details may be found at WWF