The Red Book is an annotated list of rare and endangered species of animals, plants and fungi. Such books come in different levels - international, national and regional.
The first edition of the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was published in 1963. It was a pilot edition with a small print run. His two volumes contained information on 312 species and subspecies of birds and 211 species and subspecies of mammals. This book was sent to scientists and prominent statesmen. As new information accumulated, additional sheets were sent to addressees to replace the outdated ones.
Every year the work on the Red Book continues, its design has noticeably improved since the first edition. It is a document of constant action, since the living conditions of animals change all the time.
The pages of the Red Book differ in color: the green ones are the most encouraging, since those animals that were saved from extinction are recorded on them. On the white pages are those species whose numbers are small. Gray pages contain poorly studied subspecies, whose habitats are difficult to access or have not yet been identified. Pages containing subspecies, the number of which is rapidly decreasing, and which are at risk of getting on the red pages of the book, containing rare and endangered animals, are marked in yellow. In addition, the book contains a blacklist containing a list of extinct animals.
In total, the Red Book of Russia includes eight taxa (groups of living organisms combined according to the accepted classification methods) of amphibians, twenty-one taxa of reptiles, one hundred twenty-eight taxa of birds and seventy-four taxa of mammals, two hundred and thirty-one taxa in total.
In the Red Book of the Russian Federation, six categories of rarity of populations and taxa are accepted according to the degree of threat of their possible extinction: zero category - probably extinct; the first - endangered; the second - dwindling in numbers; the third is rare; the fourth is undefined by status; fifth - recoverable and recoverable.
The Red Book of Russia contains 10 main categories, into which the animals that are in them are divided: Mammals; Amphibians; Birds; Reptiles or reptiles; Fish and cyclostomes; Molluscs; Crustaceans; Worms, Bryozoans, Shoulders; Plants.
You can get acquainted with a detailed list of certain subspecies of animals, insects or plants included in the Red Book on many Internet sites of the relevant subject.
