Endemism is the ecological status of a species that is unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation, country or other defined area, or habitat type. Organisms that are indigenous to one place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. The opposite extreme of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for an endemic species is proactive, which applies to species (and sub-specific categories) that are limited to a defined geographic area.
The word endemic is from the New Latin endēmicus, from the Greek ενδήμος, endēmos, “native”. Endēmos is formed from a meaning "in", and we say that it means "the people". The term seal, has been suggested by some scientists, and was used for the first time in botany by McCaughey in 1917. It is the equivalent of "endemism". Precinction was perhaps first used by Franky McCoy. The phrase precinct seems to have been coined by David Sharp in the description of Hawaiian fauna in 1900: "I use the word precinto in the sense of" confined to the area under discussion "…" forms of enclosure "means those forms that are confined a Specified area “. This definition excludes artificial confinement of examples of humans inremote botanical gardens or zoos.
Physical, climatic and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The orange sunbird is found exclusively in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa. The glacial bear is found only in limited places in Southeast Alaska. Political factors can play a role if a species is actively protected or hunted in one jurisdiction, but not another.
There are two subcategories of endemism: paleoendemism and neoendemism. Paleoendemism refers to species that were previously extensive, but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have emerged recently, such as through reproductive divergence and isolation or through hybridization and polyploidy in plants.
Endemic types or species are especially prone to developing in geographically and biologically isolated areas such as islands and remote island groups, such as Hawaii, the Galapagos Islands, and Socotra. They can also develop in biologically isolated areas such as the Ethiopian highlands or large bodies of water far from other lakes, such as Lake Baikal.
