Canada's Endangered Species

256 Canadian species are listed by the Scientific Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as being extinct, extirpated, endangered, threatened and vulnerable. The list only includes Canada's vertebrate and vascular plant species and was released in April 1994.


Definitions are:

Extinct - a species formerly indigenous to Canada that no longer exists anywhere.

Extirpated - a species no longer existing in the wild in Canada but occurring elsewhere in the world.

Endangered - a species threatened with imminent extinction or extirpation throughout all or a significant portion of its Canadian range.

Threatened - a species likely to become endangered in Canada if the factors affecting its vulnerability are not reversed.

Vulnerable - a species particularly at risk because of low or declining numbers, small range or for some other reason, but not a threatened species.


Extinct - 9 species

Mammals, 2; Birds, 3; Fish, 4

Dawson's Caribou, Sea Mink, Great Auk, Labrador Duck, Passenger Pigeon, Deepwater Cisco, Longjaw Cisco, Banff Longnose Dace, Blue Walleye


Extirpated - 11 species

Mammals, 5; Birds, 1; Reptiles, 1; Fish, 2; Plants, 2

Grizzly Bear (Prairie population), Black-footed Ferret, Swift Fox, Walrus (Northwest Atlantic population), Gray Whale (Atlantic population), Greater Prairie-Chicken, Pygmy Short-horned Lizard, Gravel Chub, Paddlefish, Blue-eyed Mary, Illinois Tick Trefoil


Endangered - 55 species

Mammals, 11; Birds, 14; Amphibians, 1; Reptiles, 3; Fish, 3; Plants, 23

Mammals: Peary Caribou (Banks Island and High Arctic population), Eastern Cougar, Vancouver Island Marmot, Sea Otter, Bowhead Whale, Right Whale, Beluga Whale (St. Lawrence River, Ungava Bay and Southeast Baffin Island-Cumberland Sound populations), Wolverine (Eastern population).

Birds: Whooping Crane, Eskimo Curlew, Northern Bobwhite, Harlequin Duck (Eastern population), Anatum Peregrine Falcon, Acadian Flycatcher, Spotted Owl, Mountain Plover, Piping Plover, King Rail, Loggerhead Shrike (Eastern population), Henslow's Sparrow, Sage Thrasher, Kirtland's Warbler.

Amphibians: Blanchard's Cricket Frog.

Reptiles: Blue Racer Snake, Lake Erie Water Snake, Leatherback Turtle.

Fish: Salish Sucker, Aurora Trout, Acadian Whitefish.

Plants: Gattinger's Agalinis, Skinner's Agalinis, Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus, Slender Bush Clover, Pink Coreopsis, Southern Maidenhair Fern, White Prairie Gentian, Small White Lady's slipper, Furbish's Lousewort, Pink Milwort, Eastern Mountain Avens, Hoary Mountain-mint, Slender Mouse-ear-cress, Western Fringed Prairie Orchid, Heart-leaved Plantain, Large Whorled Pogonia, Small Whorled Pogonia, Wood Poppy, Engelmann's Quillwort, Threat-leaved Sundew, Cucumber Tree, Water-pennywort, Spotted Wintergreen.


Threatened - 62 species

Mammals, 8; Birds, 9; Reptiles, 3; Fish, 12;

Plants, 30;

Mammals: Wood Bison, Peary Caribou (Low Arctic pop.), Woodland Caribou (Quebec pop.), Newfoundland Pine Marten, Harbour Porpoise (Western Atlantic pop.), Pacific Water Shrew, Humpback Whale (North Pacific pop.), Beluga Whale (Eastern Hudson Bay pop.)

Birds: Yellow-breasted Chat (Okanagan pop.), Ferruginous Hawk, Marbled Murrelet, Burrowing Owl, Loggerhead Shrike (Prairie pop.), Baird's Sparrow, Roseate Tern, Hooded Warbler, White-headed Woodpecker

Reptiles: Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, Blanding's Turtle (Nova Scotia pop.), Spiny Softshell Turtle

Fish: Blackfin Cisco, Shortjaw Cisco, Shortnose Cisco, Channel Darter, Eastern Sand Darter, Margined Madtom, Black Redhorse, Copper Redhorse, Great Lakes Deepwater Sculpin, Shorthead Sculpin, Enos Lake Stickleback, Lake Simcoe Whitefish

Plants: Blue Ash, Anticosti Aster, Bluehearts, American Chestnut, Colicroot, Deerberry, Mosquito Fern, Western Blue Flag, Plymouth Gentian, Ginseng, Golden Crest, Golden Seal, Round-leaved Greenbrier, Giant Helleborine, van Brunt's jacob's Ladder, Small-flowered Lipocarpha, Red Mulberry, Sweet Pepperbush, Nodding Pogonia, Redroot, Western Spiderwort, Pitcher's Thistle, Athabasca Thrift, Kentucky Coffee Tree, Purple Twayblade, Sand Verbena, Bird's-foot Violet, American Water-willow, Tyrrell's Willow, Blunt-lobed Woodsia


Vulnerable - 119 species

Mammals, 22; Birds, 23; Amphibians, 3; Reptiles, 4; Fish, 38, Plants, 29;

including Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear, Woodland Caribou (Western population), Grey Fox, Blue Whale (Atlantic and Pacific populations), Wolverine, Eastern Bluebird, Peales Peregrine Falcon, Tundra Peregrine Falcon, Cooper's Hawk, Ancient Murrelet, Great Gray Owl, Trumpeter Swan, Eastern Yellow-bellied Racer Snake, Spotted Gar, Pacific Sardine, Green Sturgeon, Redbreasted Sunfish, Victorin's Water Hemlock, Wild Hyacinth, Phantom Orchid, Prairie Rose, Hop Tree


For a complete list of Canada's extinct, extirpated, endangered, threatened and vulnerable species listed by COSEWIC contact:

COSEWIC, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Ottawa ON K1A 0H3.


Want to help? Join or Make a Donation to an Organization that makes a difference.

If you live in the united states, these green links will take you to organizations that make a difference there.


HOME
Boreal
Region

SPECIES
Foothill
Region
Links
Grassland
Region
PLACES
Mountain
Region



Parkland
Region


Shield
Region

Whooping
Crane
Burrowing
Owl
Peregrine
Falcon
Western
Blue Flag
Trumpeter
Swan
Piping
Plover
Swift
Fox
Woodland
Caribou
White
Pelican
Northern
Leopard Frog
Bull
Trout
Ferruginous
Hawk

HOME
Albertas
Special Places
SPECIES
Alberta's
At-Risk Species
PLACES
Albertas
6 Regions

Species
Other Places
Links
Canadian
Green Links