* This page has been archived and is no longer updated.
[Created on 22/09/2010]
Celebrate World Animal Day and help WWF protect animals in the wild – adopt an animal today.
World Animal Day was started in 1931 as a way to highlight the plight of endangered species. October 4 was chosen as World Animal Day as it is the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.
Threatened species globally are monitored by The World Conservation Union (IUCN).
Each year the IUCN releases its annual Red List that announces which of the worlds species is officially listed as threatened. The IUCN Red List is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.
The World Conservation Union defines the categories of threatened species as:
- Least concern (LC)
- Near threatened (NT)
- Vulnerable (VU)
- Endangered (EN)
- Critically endangered (CR)
- Extinct in the wild (EW)
- Extinct (EX)
Click here for more information on the definition of the IUCN Red List's categories.
This World Animal Day, WWF-Australia is celebrating three of the world's most iconic animals that are at risk of extinction - tigers, gorillas and polar bears.
Human-animal conflict plays a large part in the decline of animal numbers in the wild. Many threatened species are affected by loss of habitat, due to increased demands for human consumption, and poaching - where animal parts are used in traditional medicines or as nothing more than a trophy for someone's wall.
WWF is actively working around the world to protect over 50 different threatened species but for World Animal Day 2010 we wanted to talk about the plight of tigers, gorillas and polar bears in particular.
[Created on 22/09/2010]
Celebrate World Animal Day and help WWF protect animals in the wild – adopt an animal today.
World Animal Day was started in 1931 as a way to highlight the plight of endangered species. October 4 was chosen as World Animal Day as it is the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.
Threatened species globally are monitored by The World Conservation Union (IUCN).
Each year the IUCN releases its annual Red List that announces which of the worlds species is officially listed as threatened. The IUCN Red List is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.
The World Conservation Union defines the categories of threatened species as:
- Least concern (LC)
- Near threatened (NT)
- Vulnerable (VU)
- Endangered (EN)
- Critically endangered (CR)
- Extinct in the wild (EW)
- Extinct (EX)
Click here for more information on the definition of the IUCN Red List's categories.
This World Animal Day, WWF-Australia is celebrating three of the world's most iconic animals that are at risk of extinction - tigers, gorillas and polar bears.
Human-animal conflict plays a large part in the decline of animal numbers in the wild. Many threatened species are affected by loss of habitat, due to increased demands for human consumption, and poaching - where animal parts are used in traditional medicines or as nothing more than a trophy for someone's wall.
WWF is actively working around the world to protect over 50 different threatened species but for World Animal Day 2010 we wanted to talk about the plight of tigers, gorillas and polar bears in particular.
The signals coming from both poles are clear, observable and scientifically validated: man-made climate change is causing warming.
Polar bears live throughout the ice-covered waters in the Arctic regions of Europe, Canada and Alaska. Polar bears are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, meaning that a global population decline of 30% or more was expected within three generations or 50 years. There are currently only 20,000-25,000 polar bears worldwide.
In 2010 there may be as few as 3,200 tigers surviving in the wild. Tiger numbers are thought to have fallen by over 95 percent in the last 110 years - down from perhaps 100,000.
