Database fields

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Search Fields:

This page holds information about and explanations of the search functions and database fields.  If your question is not answered below, please check the FAQ and glossary pages, or contact us.

Keyword search: Any search term may be typed into the keyword search.  Examples include scientific names, such as “Canis lupus”, or common names, such as “wolf”.  The text search will also recognise any synonyms that are listed in the database.

Taxonomy: The most recent, agreed-upon taxonomy (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species) has been imported from the Species 2000 Catalogue of Life Annual Checklist.  This centralized Catalogue has over 1 million species listed and draws on 52 taxonomic databases from around the world.  Sub-specific names are listed after the species name in the Species field.

Country: This is the country or region for which the assessment has been conducted.

Regional Status: The national or regional status, as provided by the Red Listing party.  Where the assessment uses non-IUCN criteria, the criteria are included if provided.

Year: The year that the assessment was conducted or published.

Criteria used: All assessments have been assigned to one of four criteria categories.  “IUCN-Endorsed” is used when the IUCN SSC was involved in the creation of the NRL.  “IUCN” is applied for lists using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, but not directly involving IUCN in their creation.  “Modified IUCN” lists have taken the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria as a basis and then applied certain alterations.  Lastly, “Non-IUCN” is used for lists that have applied an entirely different threat assessment system.  Where possible, Non-IUCN assessments include the citation of the criteria system used.

Database Fields:

Taxonomy: This includes the Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species (including subspecies) that are currently accepted by specialists and therefore included in the Species 2000 Catalogue of Life.  As the majority of data contained in National and Regional Red Lists often includes just family, genus and species level, there are certain instances where the species was not found in the Catalogue of Life.  In these cases the higher taxonomy has been inferred using the genus or family provided by the Red Listing party.  To ensure that this process is transparent, the “Species 2000 Notes” field details how the taxonomic information was derived.  Inevitably, there are some species for which higher taxonomic information could not be found.

Species authority: Where possible, the species authority has been imported from the Species 2000 Catalogue of Life.  Where the Catalogue either does not list a species authority or the listed authority conflicts with that provided by the Red Listing party, any information included is that of the Red Listing party.  Details on this procedure for each individual species can be found in the Species 2000 Note at the bottom of the species account.

Common names: The common names that are currently included in the database are those that have been provided by the Red Listing party.  Associated languages are listed.

Synonyms: This field includes synonyms provided by both the Red Listing party and the Species 2000 database.  Where a synonym is the name under which the species is listed on the given NRL, this has been noted.

Taxonomic notes: This may include any further information about the species that relates to its taxonomy or the specifics of the population being assessed.  Examples include museum specimen numbers or delineations of certain subpopulations.

Global Status: This information has been imported from the IUCN Red List database.  Please follow the link to the associated species page on the Red List website in order to see the full global assessment and its accompanying detail.

Country: This is the country or region for which the assessment has been conducted.

Regional Status: The national or regional status, as provided by the Red Listing party, is included here.  When the assessment uses non-IUCN criteria, the criteria are included if provided.

Year Assessed: This lists the year that the assessment was conducted.

Criteria Used: All assessments have been categorized into the following criteria systems: “IUCN-Endorsed”, when the IUCN SSC was involved; “IUCN”, when the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria were used without IUCNs involvement; “Modified-IUCN”, when the Categories and Criteria were altered and applied; and “Non-IUCN”, when an entirely different system was used.

Criteria citation: For most Non-IUCN assessments, the citation for the criteria system applied has been provided.

Distribution:  The distributional information provided may vary from national-level to global-level, depending on the data collected and contributed by the Red Listing party.

Endemism: If the Red Listing party had specifically noted that the species was endemic to the country or region this is listed.  However, it is likely that certain endemics will not be tagged as “Endemic”, as that information may not have been recorded by the Red Listing party.

Map available: Where a map of the species distribution is known to exist, the citation for this map has been noted.  Due to copyright restrictions, maps are not reproduced on this site.

Habitat: Any information on the habitat preferences for the given species are listed here.  Like all other fields, this only includes information gathered by the Red Listed party, therefore many species accounts do not list habitat data.

Threats: This includes any threats that the Red Listing party included in the assessment of the species.  Where an IUCN-based assessment has been made, but threat information has not been included, this is delineated.

Justification: The reasons for assigning the species to the given threat category are listed in the Justification section.

History: Where information on previous national or regional assessments is available, it has been listed.  If History information is not provided for a given species this may be because either its assessment listed above is the first evaluation of the threat status of the species, or simply because data on the past assessments has been unavailable.

Regional Red List Notes: Any additional information from the Red Listing party is included in the Notes section.

Assessor Affiliation:  As mentioned in the Search Function Help, all assessments have been tagged with one or more of the following assessor affiliations: Academic, Governmental, NGO, Intergovernmental Organisation, Private, and Individual.

Assessors: The reference for the Red List report in which this species account is included.

Taxonomic group: All species for which higher taxonomy is known have been grouped into the following: amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, vascular plants, non-vascular plants, and fungi/lichen.  Groups below this level, i.e. spiders or mosses, have not yet been tagged in the database.  For such specific queries, please search the appropriate taxonomic level of the Advanced Search.

Action Plan Citation: This includes either the full reference or title of the conservation Action Plan.

Action Plan documents and links: All Action Plans listed in the database are provided via links or downloads.  When the image of the report cover is clicked, a new page will open with either the PDF of the report or the site from where it is hosted.

Regional Red List documents and links: Where are available online or have been provided by the Red Listing party, these are posted.  When the image is clicked, a new page will open which will either begin to download a PDF from this website or from the Red Listing party’s website, or will take the user to the Red Listing party’s website where the information is posted.

Current Conservation Measures: Any conservation measures that are in place at present and have been noted by the Red Listing party are included here.  This may also include international conventions under which the associated species is listed.

Required Conservation Measures: For many species, the required conservation measures will be outlined in the accompanying action plan.  In these such situations, please follow the Action Plan link to find the full document.  For species without Action Plans, any required conservation measures delineated by the Red Listing party are listed here.

Supplementary links: Links to the Red Listing party’s website are included, along with links to other sites that may be of relevance to the Red Listing in the given country.

Species 2000 Notes: The taxonomy included in the species account derives from the Species 2000 Catalogue of Life Annual Checklist.  As mentioned above in the Taxonomy section, taxonomic information was imported from different levels of the taxonomic tree when there was not a direct match with the species name.  All information on how this was done is listed in this section.