Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
species that is affected by anenvironmental danger prior to other species, thus serving as an early warning system for the other species with regard to a danger.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Similar to the miner's canary, from which the term is derived.
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Examples
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reesetee commented on the word climate canary
An organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon. -- from the American Dialect Society's 2006 "Most Useful" list
February 27, 2008