Here you can read the Endangered Species Act of 1973 in its
entirety:
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version
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version
While reading it, you may want to look up words or terms that you are unfamiliar with. These terms can be found in the ESA glossary located in PDF format here. Both the glossary and the Endangered Species Act of 1973 documents are from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services website.
The IUCN Red List of endangered animals and plants is an annual list of both vulnerable and endangered animals since 2000. The Red List uses extensive scientific research and more information can be obtained at www.redlist.org. An excerpt from their site says:
"IUCN - The World Conservation Union, through its Species Survival Commission (SSC) has for four decades been assessing the conservation status of species, subspecies, varieties and even selected subpopulations on a global scale in order to highlight taxa threatened with extinction, and therefore promote their conservation. Although today we are operating in a very different political, economic, social and ecological world from that when the first IUCN Red Data Book was produced, the SSC remains firmly committed to providing the world with the most objective, scientifically-based information on the current status of globally threatened biodiversity."
Click the corresponding links below to view the 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006 Red List photo galleries.