candidate species

[ kan-di-deyt spee-sheez, spee-seez, kan-di-dit ]

noun

, Biology, Ecology.

1. any plant or animal species that is a candidate for designation as an endangered species or threatened species:

   Thanks to conservation efforts, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service no longer classifies this New England rabbit as a candidate species.

candidate species

/ kăn′dĭ-dāt′ /

1. A plant or animal species that is classified by a government agency as a candidate for possible listing as an endangered or threatened species.

Word History and Origins

Origin of candidate species¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

If it does, the owls will become a “candidate” species, which affords them the same protections as if they were listed under the state Endangered Species Act while a 12- to 18-month status review moves forward.

From Los Angeles Times

It's a candidate species for what may be one of the Forest Service's most ambitious climate adaptation efforts to date — the physical relocation of seeds and seedlings from more southern latitudes into warming northern forests.

From Scientific American

In this swath of the state, mountain lions are listed as a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act.

From Los Angeles Times

The vote made the tree a “candidate species”, meaning that for the year that the state studies and determines whether the trees should be given a “threatened” status, as the petition asks, the trees will be protected under the law, said Melissa Miller-Henson, executive director of the California Fish and Game Commission.

From The Guardian

“My chief concern with a candidate listing is how the commission would reconcile the protections afforded candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act with the rules already applicable to the mountain lion under Proposition 117,” said Damien Schiff, senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit established to represent individual liberty and property rights.

From Los Angeles Times