California has 157 threatened and endangered plant and animal species as of January 2011 according to the Department of Fish and Game in the Natural Resources Agency in the state of California. The California Endangered Species Act of 1984 created the categories of "endangered" and "threatened" as a way of categorizing animals by population sizes. The California condor is perhaps the most famous imperiled creature.
All the threatened or endangered crustaceans in the state of California are shrimp or crayfish. These include several types of fairy shrimp, Shasta crayfish and freshwater shrimp. Freshwater shrimp are known as detritus feeders and no other stream animal can fill that role. Every creature has an important role in the ecosystem, and factors like pollution and introduced species can affect them.
Species of trout, smelt, chub and salmon are endangered in California. Chinook and Coho salmon both made the endangered species list as well as little kern, Lahontan cutthroat and Paiute cutthroat trout. The endangerment of fish is largely due to pollution and overfishing. Two fish; the Tecopa pupfish and the thicktail chub have gone extinct.
The green sea turtle and the loggerhead sea turtle are two well-known species of reptiles that are endangered. Others include the desert tortoise, Ridely sea turtle and leatherback sea turtle. The barefoot banded gecko, blunt-nosed leopard lizard, island night lizard and the Southern rubber boa are other reptiles classified as threatened or endangered in the state of California.
Whales are well known components of the endangered species list. The fin, Sei, blue, humpback, eight, sperm and killer whale are all included on the California list of endangered species list, three of which were added after 2000. The Southern sea otter, stellar sea lion, seven species of foxes and several small mammals such as the salt marsh harvest mouse are also included.
