Summary of living species in Canada

The Biota of Canada project summarizes the known number of living Canadian species by taxonomic group, as well as estimates of how many species are thought to live here undiscovered. Explore the data by clicking on a group, to drill deeper into the taxonomic heirarchy.

We need your help!

Compiling data on Canadian species is a massive undertaking and we have captured summary data on only the main branches of the tree of life so far. We would like to expand this page to include deeper taxonomic levels, and for that we seek assistance. If you are knowledgeable in a particular group of organisms, and are interested in becoming a curator of that group on this site, please get in touch with the BSC.

Recorded Species in Canada Unrecorded Species in Canada
Animalia 56,452 40,261
Archaea Unknown Unknown
Bacteria Unknown Unknown
Chromista Unknown Unknown
Fungi 9,800 3,331
"Lichens" 2,000 500
Plantae 7,354 496
Protozoa 1,000 1,000
Viruses 200 150,000

Acknowledgements

For providing data, we thank Remi Hebert, Coordinator of the General Status of Species in Canada program for the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada. For constructing this site, we thank Timothy Quinn of the Dark Data Project.


Biological Survey of Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Dark Data Project