This research investigates how changes in habitat size affects extinction risk. More precisely, we study how a change in habitat affects the likelihood to change the protection status in the IUCN red list. We distinguish between an immediate effect on the likelihood of switching and a long term gradual effect. The IUCN red list contains 166,000 species and attributes to each of them one of the following statuses: Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct.