Nature
216 verified facts in this category, showing 101–200.
- The Endangered Freckled Cypripedium (Cypripedium lentiginosum) orchid has fewer than 100 individuals remaining, found in south-eastern Yunnan, China, and Ha Giang province, Vietnam.
- Governor Laffan's Fern (Diplazium laffanianum) is classified as Extinct in the Wild, having last been seen in 1905 after human habitat destruction and introduction of invasive species.
- The Japanese Eel (Anguilla japonica), Japan's most expensive food fish, is listed as Endangered due to habitat loss, overfishing, migration barriers, pollution, and changes to oceanic currents.
- Dominica's Imperial Parrot (Amazona imperialis) declined from Endangered to Critically Endangered after Hurricane Maria in 2017, with fewer than 50 mature individuals estimated to remain in the wild.
- Almost 25% of all known eucalypt species are threatened with extinction, with 812 of the 826 species assessed occurring only in Australia.
- More than 750 Echo Parakeets (Psittacula eques) now live in the wild in Mauritius, leading to their reclassification from Endangered to Vulnerable in the 2019-3 IUCN Red List update.
- After a 35-year captive-breeding programme, the Guam Rail became established on neighbouring Cocos Island while remaining classified as Critically Endangered.
- Wild Northern bald ibis breeding pairs in Morocco fell to 59 in 1997 and rose to 147 in 2018, and reintroductions have returned the species to parts of its former range, including the Alps.
- The fin whale population has doubled since the 1970s due to reduced catches in the North Atlantic and international bans on commercial whaling.
- The California Channel Island fox population increased from about 1,500 individuals to about 5,500 after the National Park Service removed golden eagles, bred and reintroduced foxes, and inoculated them against disease.
- Leatherback sea turtle populations are declining in the Pacific Ocean but recovering in the Atlantic Ocean.
- The okapi, popularly known as the 'forest giraffe,' is more closely related to giraffes than to zebras.
- Tuna can swim at speeds approaching 40 miles per hour.
- The southern bluefin tuna's IUCN conservation status improved from "critically endangered" to "endangered."
- The 2011 IUCN assessment cited habitat loss of over 80% over three generations (defined as 90 years) for the desert tortoise, incorporating past reductions and predicted future declines.
- The Mojave Desert subpopulation occupies only the most well-studied 30% of the larger former range of the desert tortoise, yet this portion experienced the greatest human impacts and the largest documented past population losses.
- Juvenile representation is decreasing in all five G. agassizii recovery units, indicating inadequate recruitment across the entire recovery-unit system.
- The Mojave Desert Tortoise, now classified as Gopherus agassizii sensu stricto, was assessed as Critically Endangered after the former widespread species was split into three species: G. agassizii, G. morafkai, and G. evgoodei.
- Recurrent movement on California's Imperial Fault caused right-lateral fault offset at Interstate 8.
- The eastern North Pacific population of gray whales was delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 1994 after being declared no longer in danger of extinction.
- In 2016, NOAA Fisheries determined that 9 of the 14 humpback whale distinct population segments did not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.
- Less than 1 percent of species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act have been lost, according to NOAA Fisheries.
- The North Atlantic right whale population was estimated at about 384 individuals in 2024, with breeding females numbering under 100.
- The International Union for Conservation of Nature changed the North Atlantic right whale's Red List category from Endangered to Critically Endangered.
- Within 1,000 years of humans migrating into the Americas, more than 114 species of large plant-eaters, including woolly mammoths, giant camels, and ground sloths, went extinct.
- During the Pacific 'Blob' event, sea-surface temperatures in some locations were more than 10°F above average.
- The toxic algal bloom during the Pacific 'Blob' period delayed and partially closed recreational and commercial fishing seasons for sardines, anchovies, crabs, and razor clams.
- The Pacific 'Blob' marine heatwave coincided with unexpected die-offs of California sea lions, Guadalupe fur seals, common murres, and Cassin's auklets.
- A toxic algal bloom stretched along the entire West Coast of the United States during the Pacific Blob period.
- The Pacific Ocean spans 60 million square miles, making it larger than all of Earth's landmasses combined.
- Charles William Hobley published an article about the dingonek in 1913 in a publication of the East Africa Natural History Society.
- Another hypothesis for fairy circle formation proposes that competition between grasses naturally yields certain vegetation patterns.
- One hypothesis for fairy circle formation proposes that the activities of various types of termites affect vegetation growth.
- No study has conclusively proven how fairy circles are formed.
- Fairy circles occur in part of the Pilbara region in Western Australia.
- Fairy circles are often encircled by a ring of stimulated grass growth.
- Ball lightning is reported to last considerably longer than the split-second flash of a lightning bolt.
- A related ancient Egyptian sheep form called Ovis platyura aegyptiaca had horns that developed downward and curled forward.
- Surveys in the Gulf of Alaska found low numbers of juvenile pollock and Pacific cod, species considered central to the fishing industry.
- The glyptodont skeleton belongs to the genus Neoesclerocalyptus, which became extinct about 10,000 years ago.
- The oceanic manta ray was uplisted from Vulnerable to Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2020.
- Humphead wrasses have a lifespan of at least 32 years.
- The humphead wrasse is the largest member of the fish family Labridae (wrasses), with males growing to over 2 meters (about 6.6 ft).
- Vent molluscs make up less than 1% of global mollusc species.
- The Hispaniolan solenodon is found only on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which comprises the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
- Harmonia axyridis can range in color from red-orange to dull cream.
- The Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus) is an extinct species of deer known for having the largest antlers of any known deer species.
- During a major El Niño event, Peru closed its anchoveta fishery due to population declines linked to warming waters.
- Trimeresurus ciliaris is a snake species featured in WWF's Greater Mekong new species report, with green and purply-brown scales.
- WWF's report on 234 new species in the Greater Mekong was published on December 16, 2024.
- The saola is classified as a critically endangered species.
- The term 'Pole of Inaccessibility' is also used for a point in the Arctic Ocean that is equidistant from the surrounding landmasses.
- Mongolia's first national snow leopard census, conducted in 2021, estimated a stable population of approximately 953 individuals.
- The Bwindi-Sarambwe ecosystem, covering 83,840 acres (33,928 hectares), is home to 459 mountain gorillas, up from an estimated 400 individuals in 2011.
- The IUCN has assessed more than 105,000 species and found more than 28,000 of them threatened with extinction.
- Leatherback sea turtles can weigh 550 to 1,500 pounds (250 to 700 kilograms), making them the largest living turtles.
- The former widespread Gopherus agassizii sensu lato was last assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 1996, while the separate Sonoran Desert Tortoise, G. morafkai, was provisionally assessed as Vulnerable.
- The Mojave Desert Tortoise's Critically Endangered assessment includes disease effects from upper respiratory tract disease, also called mycoplasmosis.
- The expansion of white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease affecting bats, into the Pacific Northwest is centered in western Washington.
- Fishers were reintroduced to Washington's Olympic Peninsula in 2008 after being extirpated from the peninsula for decades.
- A magnitude 5.4 (Saudi Geological Survey; 5.7 per USGS) earthquake struck the Saudi Arabian desert at Harrat Lunayyir on May 19, 2009, causing a surface fault rupture.
- In 2016, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service divided green sea turtles into 11 distinct population segments and reclassified two endangered breeding populations, in Florida and along the Pacific Coast of Mexico.
- In 2016, NOAA Fisheries divided humpback whales into 14 distinct population segments under the Endangered Species Act.
- The ongoing North Atlantic right whale unusual mortality event includes 41 whales: 31 dead whales and 10 whales last seen alive with severe entanglements or vessel-strike injuries.
- After approximately two decades of slow recovery, the North Atlantic right whale population began declining in 2010.
- The warm water of the Pacific Blob extended all the way to the U.S. West Coast by fall 2014.
- The Pacific 'Blob' marine heatwave persisted from late 2013 through most of 2015 and into 2016.
- The Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the Mariana Trench, lies about 10,935 meters (35,876 feet) below sea level — deeper than Mount Everest is tall (approximately 8,849 meters / 29,032 feet).
- The Mariana Trench reaches roughly seven miles below the ocean surface.
- Fairy circles occur in the arid grasslands of the Namib desert in western parts of Southern Africa.
- Fairy circles are circular patches of barren land that vary between 2 and 12 metres in diameter.
- In 2022, the black rhino population numbered 6,487.
- Bathydevius caudactylus reaches a total length of about 14.5 centimeters (5.6 inches).
- The ocean's midnight zone, also called the bathypelagic zone, spans from 1,000 to 4,000 meters (3,300 to 13,100 feet) below the surface.
- In the second Ocean Species Discoveries collection, more than 20 researchers described 14 new marine invertebrate species and two new genera.
- Mobula yarae occurs from the eastern United States to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.
- The humphead wrasse was added to CITES Appendix II.
- In 2004, the humphead wrasse was categorized as Endangered by the IUCN.
- A cup of hot chocolate provides approximately 10 mg of caffeine.
- Chocolate products provide approximately 2–35 mg of caffeine per serving.
- The Green Status of Species assessment evaluates species recovery potential under different conservation scenarios.
- An IUCN Red List assessment found that the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) is at risk of extirpation in some regions of its range where small and vulnerable populations occur.
- The Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) is a member of the eulipotyphlan order of mammals, which also includes hedgehogs, moles, and shrews.
- Frogfish are among the marine species found in the new Chilean marine reserve.
- The Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility is the point on the Antarctic continent that is farthest in all directions from the surrounding seas.
- The IUCN Green Status, which assesses species' population recovery and ecological functionality, was introduced after the IUCN Red List's launch in 1964.
- African forest elephants are listed as Critically Endangered.
- Warmer water associated with the Pacific Blob first appeared about 125 miles off the West Coast of the United States in early 2014.
- The Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire contains a chain of volcanoes roughly 25,000 miles long, formed where the Pacific tectonic plate slides against or collides with surrounding plates.
- Super Typhoon Mangkhut was the strongest storm of 2018, producing winds exceeding 165 miles per hour.
- Ball lightning is distinct from will-o'-the-wisp.
- In ancient Italy, even small rivers would overflow and swamp the surrounding terrain during the annual melt of mountain snow.
- Wild savannah baboons (Papio anubis) live in stable troops of approximately 50–150 individuals.
- The Euphrates River runs 1,700 miles from the mountains of eastern Turkey to the Persian Gulf.
- The humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) was scientifically described by Rüppell in 1835.
- Nanda Devi rises nearly 26,000 feet above sea level and is located in Uttarakhand's Chamoli Garhwal district.
- The average lifespan of captive rhesus monkeys is around 26 years.
- Researchers analyzed black rhino population data dating back to 1970 using four measures: conservation legacy, dependence, gain, and recovery potential.
- Arctic wolves (Canis lupus arctos) are listed as Least Concern.
- Kilauea volcano rises to 1,250 metres above the Pacific Ocean.