Lists of organisms by population

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A murmuration of common starlings. Numbering over 310 million, this species contains at least as many individuals as the United States does humans.[1][2]

This is a collection of lists of organisms by their population. While most numbers are estimates, they have been made by the experts in their fields. Species population is a science falling under the purview of Population ecology and biogeography. Individuals are counted by census, as carried out for the piping plover;[3][4] using the transect method, as done for the mountain plover;[5] and beginning in 2012 by satellite, with the emperor penguin being the first subject counted in this manner.[6]

More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species,[7] that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct.[8][9] Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million,[10] of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described.[11] According to another study, the number of described species has been estimated at 1,899,587.[12] 2000–2009 saw approximately 17,000 species described per year.[12] The total number of undescribed organisms is unknown, but marine microbial species alone could number 20,000,000.[12] The number of quantified species will ipso facto always lag behind the number of described species, and species contained in these lists tend to be on the K side of the r/K selection continuum.

Animalia

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Vertebrates

Mammals (Mammalia)

Birds (Aves)

Reptiles (Reptilia)

Anima Population Notes
Chinese alligator 100–200[13] Only in the wild. Chinese alligators are quite prolific in captivity, with estimates of the total captive population at over 10,000 animals, mostly in the Anhui Research Centre of Chinese Alligator Reproduction and the Madras Crocodile Bank.
Komodo dragon 4,000–5,000 Their populations are restricted to the islands of Gili Motang (100), Gili Dasami (100), Rinca (1,300), Komodo (1,700), and Flores (perhaps 2,000).[14] However, there are concerns that there may presently be only 350 breeding females.[15]

Fish (Osteichthyes+Chondrichthyes+Agnatha)

There are an estimated 3,500,000,000,000 (3.5 trillion) fish in the ocean.[16] In the last 100 years, the number of small fish – such as pilchards, herrings, anchovies, sprats and sardines – has more than doubled. It is caused by a major decline in big ‘predator fish’ such as sharks, tuna and cod due to over-fishing.[17]

Hexapoda

Insects (Insecta)

Recent figures indicate that there are more than 200 million insects for each human on the planet. An article in The New York Times claimed that the world holds 300 pounds of insects for every pound of humans.[18] Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. Their population is estimated as 107–108 billion.[19]

Plantae

According to NASA in 2005, there were over 400 billion trees on our globe.[20] However, more recently, in 2015, using better methods, the global tree count has been estimated at about 3 trillion.[21] Other studies show that the Amazonian forest alone yields approximately 430 billion trees.[22] Extrapolations from data compiled over a period of 10 years suggest that greater Amazonia, which includes the Amazon Basin and the Guiana Shield, harbors around 390 billion individual trees.[23]

See also

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References

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  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. Alligators, River Dolphins, Giant Salamanders In China - China | Facts And Details
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  16. Times of Change ... from Energetical, Financial, Political to Personal Change: Trillion
  17. Sardine population explodes due to two-thirds decline in predator fish | Mail Online
  18. Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Numbers of Insects
  19. Embery, Joan and Lucaire, Ed (1983) Collection of Amazing Animal Facts.
  20. Going Out On A Limb With A Tree-Person Ratio : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR
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  22. http://www.pnas.org/content/105/suppl.1/11498.full
  23. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/fm-fms101413.php