How you can help
You can stay informed about endangered animals and plants, and the importance of protecting our natural heritage. You'll find many ways to reduce your impact on the environment and preserve natural habitats. Even the smallest acts can make a difference. Buy products with less packaging whenever you can, and recycle whatever you can. You'll help reduce the total human impact on the planet. Avoid using harmful chemicals around your home. If these get into the water or ground, they can disperse into the environment and harm living things miles away. When you travel abroad, don't buy souvenirs made from endangered animals. These could include animal hides and body parts, tortoise-shell, ivory, or coral, and some traditional medicines. Join a local organization that looks after local nature reserves. You can help remove weeds and plant local native species, which encourages native animals to return. If you want to help endangered species around the world, contribute to organizations like Fossil Rim that work to protect and increase wild populations.

Learn conservation terms
Domestic and international wildlife management and regulatory organizations use a variety of categories and labels for species considered at risk. In many cases, a species is subject to several levels of protection.

The terms used on this site are based on criteria established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the United States Department of Interior (USDI), the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TP&W), and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

For those species considered at risk, we use the following terms:

Endangered, IUCN, USDI, TP&W; Appendix I, CITES - Species in danger of extinction and whose survival is unlikely if the casual factors continue operating.

Vulnerable, IUCN; Threatened, USDI, TP&W; Appedix II, CITES- Species believed likely to move into the "Endangered" catagory in the near future if the casual factors continue operating and if trade is not regualted.

Appendix III, CITES - Species for which any party has regulations within their country for the purpose of preventing or restricting exploitation and as needing the cooperation of other parties in control of trade.

For those species not considered at risk, we use the following descriptive terms:

Domesticated: Adapted to live in intimate association with, and to the advantage of, humans.

Widely introduced: Populations successfully established in areas outside their original range insuring their continued existence.

Population stable: Number of animals decreasing but not yet to the point of putting the species at risk.

Recovering in the wild: Numbers of animals increasing after suffering losses that could have put the species at risk if the trend had continued.