How Live Species counts

Every number on Live Species is dated, credited to the body that counted it and labelled with its kind.

This page sets out the rule for listing an animal, the kinds of number, where the figures come from, how each is checked before it goes up and how corrections work.

The rule

Live Species lists a wild animal when 1,000 or fewer are left in the wild, or when it used to be that few and has been counted back up past 1,000. An animal is listed only after its count has been read at its source, with its date and the body that counted. A comeback is listed only with a dated low from its counting body.

Animals that do not fit the scale are shown apart. Gone from the wild: none are known in the wild, and any left live in captivity. Nobody knows: no counting body has published a current total.

Counted another way: these figures do not count every animal in the wild. They measure the forest a wintering colony covers, or the butterflies seen at their winter sites, so they stay off the scale. A count that never fell to 1,000 is shown in the descent, not on the wall.

A listing may stand for a species, a subspecies or a named population, and says which. A count that covers only a country, a zone or a flock is used when that area holds most of the animals, and the area is named.

The kinds of number

Every number keeps its own kind, and its label says which. Each label below is set as it appears on an animal's page.

Head count: Animals counted in one coordinated count, not estimated. Some may be missed or counted twice. Where every animal is known one by one, the animal's own page says so.
Estimate, with range: A survey estimate: the headline number is the most likely figure, and the range beside it is how far either way the true number could sit.
Estimate, no range: The counting body's best figure from a survey or a model, published without a range, so read it as about this many rather than exactly this many.
At least this many: The number of different animals actually seen or known alive; the true total is at least this and may well be higher.
Known alive, a minimum: A minimum given as a range: the counters put the number of different animals known alive within it, and the true total may be higher.
From a model: Calculated from sightings and survival rates rather than counted, so it changes when the model is updated, sometimes for earlier years too.
Counted another way: These figures do not count every animal in the wild: they measure the forest a wintering colony covers, or the butterflies seen at their winter sites, so they stay off the scale.
Butterflies counted at winter sites, a minimum: The butterflies counted at the winter sites that were visited, so the population is at least this many.
Two figures that disagree: Two bodies publish different numbers for the same animal. The independent or peer-reviewed figure leads, and the other sits beside it with its own source and date.

Where a figure is adults only, singing males, or wild and captive together, its label says so.

A change between counts is a trend only when the counting body calls it a trend. A count of none reads gone from the wild. A missing number stays blank: unknown is not the same as none.

The only number that moves on the site is the human population: the UN's World Population Prospects (medium variant) run forward to the present moment. It is an estimate, not a count.

Where figures come from

Each figure comes from the counting body's own publication: a government agency, a recovery programme, a survey team or a peer-reviewed paper.

News reports and encyclopedias can lead to a source but never stand as a source. Figures announced at meetings go up only from the published report or an official release.

What moves a number (the pressures) and who is helping come only from the counting body, the recovery programme, a government listing document or a peer-reviewed paper, each with its link. They never come from Live Species' own reading.

Short quotes appear only where the publisher's terms allow quoting. Otherwise the page paraphrases and links.

How a figure is checked

Before a figure goes up, the source page is saved. An AI reader model checks every claim in the record against the saved source, claim by claim.

A further review checks the reader's result and opens the saved source itself wherever there is doubt. A claim stands only when the reader and the review agree, and any disagreement goes to the editor.

The editor, a person, approves every new animal before it appears, and every changed line, disputed figure or doubt.

The wording on each page is drafted from the checked claims only and checked again line by line.

After launch, the sources are reread on a schedule. A new count for an animal already listed goes up when the reader's check and the review agree, and anything else waits for the editor.

Corrections

When a figure or a line changes, the change is listed on the Changes page with its date.

Each animal's page lists its own changes.