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Rare species

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A rare species is a group of organisms that are very uncommon or scarce. This designation may be applied to either a plant or animal taxon, and may be distinct from the term "endangered

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

" or "threatened species

Threatened species

Threatened species are any speciesg animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future.The World Conservation Union is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories,...

" but not "extinct".
Designation of a rare species may be made by an official body such as a national government, state or province. However, the term is used more commonly without reference to a specific criteria. The IUCN does not normally make such designations but may use the term in its scientific discussions.

The concept of rarity is established from having a very small number of organisms worldwide, usually a number less than 10,000; however, the concept is also influenced by having a very narrow endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

range and/or fragmented habitat

Habitat fragmentation

Habitat fragmentation as the name implies, describes the emergence of discontinuities in an organism's preferred environment , causing population fragmentation...

.

A species may be endangered or vulnerable, but not considered rare if, for example, it has a large, dispersed population but its numbers are declining rapidly or predicted to do so. Rare species are generally considered threatened simply because the inability of small population size

Small population size

Small populations behave differently from larger populations. They often result in population bottlenecks, which have harmful consequences for the survival of that population.-Demographic effects:...

s to recover from stochastic events, and the potential for a rapid decline in population.

Rare species

See also

Further reading