How to read the SpeciesWatch Extinction Clock
The Extinction Clock is the 0–100 urgency index shown in the Extinction Clock dashboard. It combines the IUCN risk categories of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue into one monitoring signal. It is not a countdown or a prediction of when extinction will occur.
Risk is a condition, not a deadline
A Red List category describes the severity of extinction risk under published criteria. It does not say that every species in the same category has the same population, geography or time remaining. A narrowly distributed amphibian and a wide-ranging marine mammal can share a category while facing very different pressures.
The large number counts curated Critically Endangered profiles. Individual dossiers reveal the context hidden by the total: population direction, habitat, threats, occurrence records and references.
Why connect species, fires and protected places?
Extinction risk rarely has one cause. Habitat conversion, invasive species, exploitation, pollution and climate stress can reinforce one another. Fire detections add a current environmental layer, while protected-area records show where conservation commitments exist.
These layers are signals for investigation. A satellite hotspot is not automatically habitat destruction, and a protected designation does not guarantee ecological safety. Their value comes from comparison and source context.