Which Country Has The Most Known Animal Species?

Today (May 22) is World Biodiversity Solar day. In celebration, below is a wait at the earth'south 10 nigh biodiverse countries every bit measured past species richness.
This list takes a simplified approach, created a weighted index using five groups of animals — amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles — and 1 group of plants — vascular plants.
Note: the rankings were updated on September 26, 2021.

Writer's note: The data that underpins this mail is updated on a regular footing on Mongabay's rainforest site: Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Mammals, Reptiles, Vascular Plants.

September 26, 2021 update: this list was revised to reverberate new data on institute multifariousness, which slightly affected the lodge of the rankings of the top 10 countries.

May 22 has been designated equally the "International Day for Biological Diversity" by the United Nations to "increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity bug". In celebration of Globe Biodiversity Day, below is a look at the world's ten most biodiverse countries as measured by species richness.

A few caveats before we get to the list. At that place are many means to measure biodiversity. This list takes a simplified approach, created a weighted index using 5 groups of animals — amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles — and i group of plants — vascular plants. Each country is ranked by its percentage of species in each group relative to the total global number of species for each grouping. There are obviously major omissions: the organisation don't account for insects and other invertebrates, fungi, microorganisms, and a number of other large groups of living creatures. Nor does information technology attempt to measure diversity of populations within species, levels of endemism, or intactness of ecosystems. Nonetheless we believe the list represents a fair proxy for the planet'southward about biodiverse countries. Some of the countries in the ranking could move up or downwards a few places in the rankings depending on 1'due south data sources and methodology.

The scale-crested pygmy tyrant lives in Central America and northern South America. This individual was capturing during a bird survey, banded, and released. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. — The calibration-crested pygmy tyrant lives in Key America and northern South America. This private was capturing during a bird survey, banded, and released. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Just missing the top x

Several countries — Bolivia, South Africa, Democratic Congo-brazzaville, Malaysia, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, and Vietnam — narrowly missed the summit 10. For some plant and animate being groups, some of these countries practice make their corresponding summit 10s, including Southward Africa for vascular plants and Papua New Republic of guinea for animals.

Venezuela's Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall. Photo by Rhett A. Butler — Angel Falls, located in Venezuela, is the tallest waterfall in the world. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

#xi: Venezuela

Venezuela gets a special mention considering in the original version of this story, it was tied at #10 with the United States. But updated institute data led to information technology ranking below the U.S. in the revised ranking. Venezuela is one of the world's most biodiverse countries when information technology comes to birds.

#10: the United states of america

With its large geographic extent and range of ecosystems from tundra to tropical forests, the United States has incredibly high levels of biodiversity. Due to its multifariousness of freshwater and marine ecosystems, the The states ranks especially high in terms of fish species.

#9: Bharat

With a large landmass covering a range of ecosystems, Republic of india scores well across the board in terms of species richness. It ranks particularly high when it comes to reptiles and birds. Some of India'due south all-time known species are charismatic megafauna: elephants, rhinos, lions, and tigers.

#8: Republic of ecuador

Despite having a smaller land area than the state of Arizona, Ecuador outpaces the entire United States when it comes to biodiversity. The country — which spans the Andes-Amazon region and includes the Galapagos archipelago — outranks the U.South. in bird (1588 bird species in Ecuador versus the USA'due south 844 species) and amphibian species (539 species versus 300 species).

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coal reef. However Australia also has species-rich reefs on its western coast. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. — The Great Bulwark Reef is the world'southward largest coal reef. However Australia also has species-rich reefs on its western coast. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

#seven: Australia

Australia actually outperforms when it comes to reptiles and fish, leading the world in both categories co-ordinate to The Reptile Database and FishBase. The Smashing Barrier Reef and terrestrial ecosystems ranging from dry deserts to tropical rainforests give the continent-nation a boost in the rankings.

#6: United mexican states

Spanning Meso-American rainforests, dry forests, mountain habitats, and deserts, Mexico scores well beyond about plant and animal groups. Its strongest ranks come amongst birds, mammals, reptiles, and plants.

#5: Republic of peru

Unsurprisingly, three of the summit five countries on this list are in South America, which is habitation of the world'due south largest rainforest: the Amazon. Peru is second merely to Colombia in terms of birds and ranks in the elevation five globally for amphibians, mammals, and plants.

Rainforest in China's Yunnan Province. Photo by Rhett A. Butler — Strangler fit in the rainforest of China's Yunnan Province. Photograph by Rhett A. Butler

#4: Cathay

While almost Americans probably call up of massive cities when someone mentions "China" or possibly the panda behave, the giant East Asian country is actually home to a staggering array of habitats, from tropical rainforests in Yunnan to the Gobi desert. China ranks particularly well for birdlife, plants, and fish.

Jaguar in Colombia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

#2: Colombia

Colombia'south incredible bird, amphibian, and plant richness elevates the country to the superlative 3 on our index. With 1826 species, Republic of colombia has more species of birds than any country on Earth. Colombia'south biological richness is a product of its diversity of ecosystems, including tropical forests in the Amazon and Choco, mountain habitats like the Sierra Nevada and Andes, the grasslands of the llanos and páramos, and islands similar Gorgona in the Pacific and San Martin in the Caribbean.

The Knobbed hornbill is found on Sulawesi. Photo by Rhett A. Butler — The Knobbed hornbill is institute on Sulawesi. Photograph by Rhett A. Butler

#2: Indonesia

An archipelago of more than 10,000 islands, Indonesia has a broad array of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, including parts of the world'south third largest rainforest and the famed Coral Triangle. Indonesia has the most mammal species of any country and is narrowly edged out by Australia when it comes to fish species, according to FishBase. It ranks fourth with 1615 bird species, according to BirdLife International. Republic of indonesia is the only place on Globe where rhinos, orangutans, elephants, bears, and tigers can be found living in the same forest.

The giant monkey frog lives across the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

#1: Brazil

Brazil is the Earth'south biodiversity champion. Between the Amazon rainforest and Mata Atlantica forest, the woody savanna-similar cerrado, the massive inland swamp known as the Pantanal, and a range of other terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, Brazil leads the world in constitute and amphibian species counts. It ranks second in mammals and amphibians, third in birds, reptiles and fish.

Chart showing the world's most biodiverse countries — Nautical chart showing the world's almost biodiverse countries

Small Countries: Pockets of Biodiversity

This list focused on full biodiversity. It is therefore biased toward big countries similar Brazil, the U.South., Russian federation, and China. But on a per unit of measurement of expanse basis, tiny tropical countries are biodiversity champions: Trinidad-and-Tobago, Brunei, Gambia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Belize, Costa Rica, Rwanda, Equatorial guinea, and Panama meridian the list.

World's most biodiverse countries, ranking by species richness per unit of area. — World'due south about biodiverse countries, ranking past species richness per unit of area.

Disagree with the ranking? Experience gratis to comment below.

Data SOURCES: AmphibiaWeb, FishBase, IUCN Reddish List, Reptile Database, Birdlife International, Mongabay.com, and UNEP-WCMC (Earth Conservation Monitoring Centre).

The rankings at the time of this mail's publication: Earth'due south most biodiversity countries (2016 version) and Biodiversity per unit of area (2016 version)

The number of species used to make up one's mind biodiversity share (rounded to nearest hundred):

Birds: 10,000
Amphibians: vii,500
Mammals: five,500
Fish 33,000
Reptiles 10,300
Plants: 270,000

Update: 5/23/2016: Readers take asked what countries were included in the assessment. Here is the full listing — we were limited by fourth dimension and data availability: Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Commonwealth of australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Commonwealth, Chile, China, Republic of colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, DR Congo, Republic of ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Federal democratic republic of ethiopia, French republic, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Republic of guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire), Jamaica, Nippon, Republic of kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Republic of liberia, Madagascar, Republic of malaŵi, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles , Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad-and-Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia, and Republic of zimbabwe.

Author'southward note: The data that underpins this post is updated on a regular ground on Mongabay's rainforest site: Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Mammals, Reptiles, Vascular Plants.

Amphibians, Animals, Archive, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Featured, Fish, Forests, Herps, Mammals, Plants, Rainforests, Reptiles, Wild animals

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