The median number of populations required for delisting under the U.S. Endangered Species Act is at or below historical population numbers for 64% of species.
Notes on verification
Verified against peer-reviewed BioScience article on two independent hosting platforms (Oxford Academic, BioOne), both matching the exact statistic verbatim. USGS listing corroborates as the same publication's metadata.
Sources
- how is recovery defined by the U.S. Endangered Species Act? (pubs.usgs.gov)
- https://bioone.org/journals/bioscience/volume-62/issue-7/bio.2012.62.7.7/By-the-Numbers--How-is-Recovery-Defined-by-the/10.1525/bio.2012.62.7.7.short (bioone.org)
- https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/62/7/646/243343 (academic.oup.com)