Species Extinct and At Risk
As of April 1994, 256 Canadian species are listed by the government-funded scientific Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as being vulnerable. The list only includes Canada's vertebrate and vascular plant species. 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
- 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.)
Whooping Crane
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, Shorhead 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 Waterwillow, 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 Yellowbellied 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.
