Endangered means at serious risk of disappearing completely from Earth. When scientists say an animal species is endangered, they mean so few of them remain alive that the entire species could go extinct if nothing is done to protect them.

The giant panda, for example, became endangered because humans destroyed the bamboo forests where pandas lived and ate. The California condor nearly went extinct in the 1980s, with only 27 birds remaining in the entire world. Conservation efforts helped save both species from disappearing forever.

Animals become endangered for many reasons: their habitats get destroyed when forests are cut down or wetlands are drained, pollution poisons their environment, hunting reduces their numbers, or climate changes alter the places where they can survive. Sometimes a combination of these factors threatens a species.

When a species is endangered, it means the situation is serious but not yet hopeless. Scientists, governments, and conservation groups work to protect endangered animals by preserving their habitats, breeding them in zoos, and creating laws against hunting them.

The word can also describe anything threatened with extinction or elimination, like an endangered language that few people still speak, or endangered traditions that younger generations no longer practice.