A listing priority number is a
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
(FWS) way of designating the relative priority of candidate species that the FWS believes should be listed as
threatened
Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensat ...
or
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
under the
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. ยง 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...
, but due to funding concerns, cannot be listed immediately.
Every candidate species is assigned a priority number from 1 to 12 based on factors such as the magnitude of threats facing the species, the immediacy of the threat and the species' taxonomic status. A lower priority number means that the species is under greater threat. For example, a number of 2 indicates a higher degree of concern than a number of 8.
The following table shows how the FWS determines listing priority numbers.
{, class="wikitable"
!Threat Magnitude
!Immediacy
!Taxonomy
!Priority Number
, -
, rowspan="6" , High , , rowspan="3" , imminent , , monotypic genus
, 1
, -
, species , , 2
, -
, subspecies/population , , 3
, -
, rowspan="3" , non-imminent , , monotypic genus , , 4
, -
, species , , 5
, -
, subspecies/population , , 6
, -
, rowspan="6" , Moderate to low , , rowspan="3" , imminent
, monotypic genus , , 7
, -
, species , , 8
, -
, subspecies/population , , 9
, -
, rowspan="3" , non-imminent , , monotypic genus
, 10
, -
, species , , 11
, -
, subspecies/population , , 12
source
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Nature conservation in the United States