Red List data methodology

What each record contains

Each record lists the species' common and scientific name, its IUCN Red List category, a last-verified date, a data-confidence flag, and links to authoritative sources. Population trend, range, and threats are shown only when verified — never guessed. Where FaunaHub already publishes a detailed animal profile, the record links to it instead of duplicating content.

The Phase 1 dataset covers 223 species across mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, with a mix of Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable records.

How we verify sources

Every source link on a record was confirmed reachable during a review pass, matching the standard used across the rest of FaunaHub. We prioritise the IUCN Red List, Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan Museum of Zoology), NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and museum and university references. We do not rely on listicles, pet shops, tourism pages, or AI-generated fact pages.

Global status vs national and regional status

A global IUCN Red List category is not the same as legal protection in any particular country. Many nations keep their own national Red Books and endangered-species laws, which can classify a species differently and carry the actual legal force. A species can be globally threatened yet locally common in part of its range, or globally secure yet strictly protected nationally. FaunaHub's regional pages show the global category and where a species occurs; they never assert national legal status. Always confirm legal protections with the relevant national wildlife authority.

Our endangered animals by region pages group species by where they occur and always show the global category — never a claim of national legal protection.

How FaunaHub scales — and why not 1,000 pages at once

FaunaHub deliberately does not publish a page for every threatened species at once. Thousands of thin, weakly sourced pages would help no one and would risk repeating errors at scale. Instead the dataset grows in reviewed batches: index records are added only with at least one authoritative, reachable source and a confident category, and a species earns a full profile only when there is enough verified material — and, ideally, a properly licensed photograph — to justify one. Reaching a larger milestone of verified records is a future goal, pursued at the pace that source verification and image licensing allow. Quality gates always override volume targets.

IUCN compliance

Conservation status categories originate with the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. FaunaHub links to IUCN and other authoritative references rather than reproducing their assessment text, maps, or datasets. Category definitions are summarised here in original language for educational use.

We link to the official IUCN Red List for every species rather than reproducing its proprietary assessment text, maps, or detailed datasets. Where automated access is restricted, our IUCN links are human-facing lookups — we never fabricate assessment identifiers or invent a category.

Images and licensing

Detailed species profiles use only photographs we can legally reuse — Public Domain, CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-SA, including U.S. federal public-domain photography. We never use AI-generated images, watermarked images, social-media screenshots, or images with unclear or non-commercial licenses. Full attribution for every image is published on the image credits page.

Known limitations

• This is a curated educational snapshot, not a complete or live conservation database.
• Some subspecies and sub-populations are assessed differently from the species as a whole.
• Categories can change between our review passes; the live IUCN entry is always authoritative.
• Index-only records intentionally do not have standalone pages.

Primary sources

• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan Museum of Zoology)
• NOAA Fisheries
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
• National Park Service
• Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute