The median number of individuals required for recovery under U.S. Endangered Species Act recovery plans is 2,400, exceeding species' abundances at the time of listing for 93% of species.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by peer-reviewed BioScience article (Neel et al. 2012), verified via publisher and independent indexing site, consistent with later citations. [tier=unverified indep_score=0.3 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable] [rescored 2026-09-15: curated origin-host map (PR #65); unclassified hosts no longer scored as aggregators]
Sources
- how is recovery defined by the U.S. Endangered Species Act? (seed:environment_and_wildlife)
- 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 (corroboration)
- https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/62/7/646/243343 (corroboration)