Critically Endangered Species

critically endangered species, an endangered species that faces an extremely high risk of extinction in wild habitats, as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is one of the most well-known objective assessment systems for classifying the status of plants, animals, and other organisms threatened with extinction. Of its three categories for threatened species, “critically endangered” is the most serious designation for an imperiled organism, and it is one step below “extinct in the wild.” In 2022 there were more than 9,000 plants and animals listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.