threatened species

Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants, fungi, insects, bugs, etc.) which are vulnerable to extinction in the near future.The World Conservation Union (IUCN) is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories: vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered, depending on the degree to which they are threatened.Species which are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of critical depensation, a mathematical measure of biomass related to population growth rate. This quantitative metric is one method of evaluating the degree of endangerment.
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Species listed by regulation under ESA, and are generally given a lower level of protection than endangered species.
  

Taking, in layman’s terms, means killing or removing a plant or animal of a species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), or seriously damaging its chances of reproduction. Except under specified circumstances, taking is forbidden under the ESA. The definition of taking is one of the current issues in the ESA debate. Incidental take of a listed species is a taking which occurs in the course of some other legal activity, whether carried out by a federal or a nonfederal entity.