Federal Status Designations

Fish and Wildlife Service Status

The table below denotes categories defined in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Notice of Review (1980, 1983, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1996) and indicate the status of a taxon under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C.A. § 1531-1543 (Supp. 1996). See https://ipac.ecosphere.fws.gov/status/list for more information.

The Endangered Species Act defines endangered and threatened as the following:
"The term 'endangered species' means any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range other than a species of the Class Insecta determined by the Secretary to constitute a pest whose protection under the provisions of this chapter would present an overwhelming and overriding risk to man."

"The term 'threatened species' means any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range."

BASIC FEDERAL STATUS DESIGNATIONS

LE = Listed Endangered
Species for which a final rule has been published in the Federal Register to list the species as endangered. Species is legally protected by the Endangered Species Act.

LT = Listed Threatened
Species for which a final rule has been published in the Federal Register to list the species as threatened. Species is legally protected by the Endagered Species Act.

PE = Proposed Endangered
Species for which a proposed rule has been published in the Federal Register to list the species as endangered

PT = Proposed Threatened
Species for which a proposed rule has been published in the Federal Register to list the species as threatened.

PS = Partial Status
Species has status in only a portion of the species' range. Typically indicated in a "full" species record where an infraspecific taxon or population has Federal status, but the entire species does not.

C or CN = Candidate for Listing
Substantial information exists in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service files on biological vulnerability to support proposals to list as endangered or threatened.

SC = Species of Concern
The terms "Species of Concern" or "Species at Risk" should be considered as terms-of-art that describe the entire realm of taxa whose conservation status may be of concern to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, but neither term has official status (currently all former C2 species).

PDL = Proposal for delisting
Species for which a final rule has been published in the Federal Register to delist the species.

XN = Non-essential Experimental Population
Species for which a population has been artificially established in the wild which is not essential to the survival of the species in the wild.

T(S/A) = Listed as Threatened Due to Similarity of Appearance
Species listed as threatened due to similarity of appearance with another species this is listed as threatened.

Note:
The categories C2, and subcategories 3B and 3C are no longer maintained by the USFWS (61 FR 7596, Feb. 28, 1996).

MORE COMPLICATED FEDERAL STATUS DESIGNATIONS

The taxonomic relationships between species and their infraspecific taxa may determine whether a taxon has federal protection. Section 17.11(g) of the Endangered Species Act states, "the listing of a particular taxon includes all lower taxonomic units." Also, if an infraspecific taxon or population has federal status, then by default, some part of the species has federal protection. Our data for some taxa show values indicating Federal status even though the element may not be specifically named in the Federal Register. Where status is implied due to a taxonomic relationship alone, the status abbreviation appears in parentheses.

Federal status has been assigned to some vertebrate populations which are defined by geopolitical boundaries (i.e., the status applies to the element only within those boundaries, even though the range of the element may extend beyond the boundaries), or to populations which are administratively defined (e.g., experimental populations). Since these populations do not have individual entries in our database, the Federal status is recorded for the species or subspecies to which that population belongs. In these cases, the status abbreviation appears in parentheses, after the abbreviation "PS" for "partial status" - indicating that the status applies only to a portion of the species' range.

Value, Value
The taxon has one status currently, but a more recent proposal has been made to change that status with no final action yet published. For example, "LE, PDL" indicates that the species is currently listed as endangered, but has been proposed for delisting.

(Value)
The taxon itself is not named in the Federal Register as having Federal status; however, it does have Federal status as a result of its taxonomic relationship to a named entity. For example, if a species is federally listed with endangered status, then by default, all of its recognized subspecies also have endangered status. The subspecies in this example would have the value "(LE)" under Federal Status. Likewise, if all of a species' infraspecific taxa (worldwide) have the same Federal status, then that status appears in the record for the "full" species as well. In this case, if the taxon at the species level is not mentioned in the Federal Register, the status appears in parentheses in that record.

(Value, Value)
The taxon itself is not named in the Federal Register as having Federal status; however, all of its infraspecific taxa (worldwide) do have official status. The statuses shown in parentheses indicate the statuses that apply to infraspecific taxa or populations within this taxon.

(PS)
Indicates "partial status" - status in only a portion of the species' range. Typically indicated in a "full" species record where an infraspecific taxon or population has Federal status, but the entire species does not.

(PS; Value)
Indicates "partial status" - status in only a portion of the species' range. The value of that status appears because the entity with status (usually a population defined by geopolitical boundaries or defined administratively, such as experimental populations) does not have an individual entry in NM.