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Protect endangered animals
Endangered animals need intervention from volunteers to help them survive. Almost 800 species have already disappeared from the planet. Habitat destruction, the introduction of nonnative species, hunting, and overexploitation by humans are among the main reasons animals become endangered.
There are more than 1,000 endangered animal species, include elephants, great apes, marine turtles, snow leopards and polar bears, among many others. Almost 500 threatened or endangered species live in the United States.
Protecting endangered animals is not just critical for their own survival, but often for the survival of many other species as well. Many endangered animals serve as "umbrella species," which means that helping them also helps others that depend on the same habitat.
Conservation centers and individual scientists around the globe seek volunteers to support the research, rescue and rehabilitation of endangered animals.
Sample projects include: * monitoring nesting * helping with wildlife rescues * computer and office assistance * coral reef research * feeding * reforestation * cleaning holding cages, or building new cages and nest boxes * conducting tours for visitors * working with school children on environmental education projects
Efforts to save threatened and endangered animals have achieved real successes, including bald eagles, gray whales and grizzly bears in the United States. So next time you have a vacation to plan, make your mark on history and spend it saving endangered animals.
By http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/vacation/endangered-animals.htm
Help endangered animals
From our start in 1961, WWF has worked to protect endangered species. We're ensuring that the world our children inherit will be home to elephants, tigers, giant pandas, whales and other wildlife species, as well as people.
WWF safeguards hundreds of species around the world, but we focus special attention on our flagship species: giant pandas, tigers, endangered whales and dolphins, rhinos, elephants, marine turtles and great apes. These species not only need special measures and extra protection in order to survive, they also serve as umbrella species: helping them helps numerous other species that live in the same habitats.
In addition to our flagship animals, we work to protect numerous species in peril around the world that live within our priority ecoregions. Large predators like snow leopards and grizzly bears, migratory species like whooping cranes and songbirds, and a host of other species facing threats also benefit from WWF's conservation efforts. Our wildlife trade experts at TRAFFIC work to ensure that trade in wildlife products doesn't harm a species, while also fighting against illegal and unsustainable trade.
WWF is known for acting on sound science. Science leads and guides our strategies and approaches, from the best way to restore tigers in viable, breeding populations to deciding which areas need protection the most.
Saving endangered animals
Plants and animals hold medicinal, agricultural, ecological, commercial and aesthetic/recreational value. Endangered species must be protected and saved so that future generations can experience their presence and value.
Medicinal
Plants and animals are responsible for a variety of useful medications. In fact, about forty percent of all prescriptions written today are composed from the natural compounds of different species. These species not only save lives, but they contribute to a prospering pharmaceutical industry worth over $40 billion annually. Unfortunately, only 5% of known plant species have been screened for their medicinal values, although we continue to lose up to 100 species daily.
The Pacific yew, a slow-growing tree found in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, was historically considered a "trash" tree (it was burned after clearcutting). However, a substance in its bark taxol was recently identified as one of the most promising treatments for ovarian and breast cancer.
Additionally, more than 3 million American heart disease sufferers would perish within 72 hours of a heart attack without digitalis, a drug derived from the purple foxglove.
Agricultural
There are an estimated 80,000 edible plants in the world. Humans depend upon only 20 species of these plants, such as wheat and corn, to provide 90% of the world's food. Wild relatives of these common crops contain essential disease-resistant material. They also provide humans with the means to develop new crops that can grow in inadequate lands such as in poor soils or drought-stricken areas to help solve the world hunger problem. In the 1970s, genetic material from a wild corn species in Mexico was used to stop a leaf fungus that had previously wiped out 15% of the U.S. corn crop.
Ecological
Plant and animal species are the foundation of healthy ecosystems. Humans depend on ecosystems such as coastal estuaries, prairie grasslands, and ancient forests to purify their air, clean their water, and supply them with food. When species become endangered, it is an indicator that the health of these vital ecosystems is beginning to unravel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that losing one plant species can trigger the loss of up to 30 other insect, plant and higher animal species.
The northern spotted owl, listed as threatened in 1990, is an indicator of the declining health of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. These forests are the home to over 100 other old-growth dependent species, which are at risk due to decades of unsustainable forest management practices.
Pollution off the coast of Florida is killing the coral reefs along the Florida Keys, which serve as habitat for hundreds of species of fish. Commercial fish species have begun to decline, causing a threat to the multi-million dollar tourism industry, which depends on the quality of the environment.
Commercial
Various wild species are commercially raised, directly contributing to local and regional economies. Commercial and recreational salmon fishing in the Pacific Northwest provides 60,000 jobs and $1 billion annually in personal income, and is the center of Pacific Northwest Native American culture. This industry and way of life, however, is in trouble as salmon decline due to habitat degradation from dams, clearcutting, and overgrazing along streams.
Freshwater mussels which are harvested, cut into beads, and used to stimulate pearl construction in oysters form the basis of a thriving industry which supports approximately 10,000 U.S. jobs and contributes over $700 million to the U.S. economy annually. Unfortunately, 43% of the freshwater mussel species in North America are currently endangered or extinct.
Aesthetic/Recreational
Plant and animal species and their ecosystems form the basis of America’s multi-billion dollar, job-intensive tourism industry. They also supply recreational, spiritual, and quality-of-life values as well.
Each year over 108 million people in the United States participate in wildlife-related recreation including observing, feeding, and photographing wildlife. Americans spend over $59 billion annually on travel, lodging, equipment, and food to engage in non-consumptive wildlife recreation. Our national heritage of biological diversity is an invaluable and irreplaceable resource. Our quality of life and that of future
Endangered bird
Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, vertebrate animals that lay eggs. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Birds range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) Bee Hummingbird to the 2.7 m (9 ft) Ostrich.
Modern birds are characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. All birds have forelimbs modified as wings and most can fly, with some exceptions including ratites, penguins, and a number of diverse endemic island species. Birds also have unique digestive and respiratory systems that are highly adapted for flight.
Many species undertake long distance annual migrations, and many more perform shorter irregular movements. Birds are social; they communicate using visual signals and through calls and songs, and participate in social behaviours including cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of bird species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, but rarely for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous ("many females") or, rarely, polyandrous ("many males"). Eggs are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching.
Many species are of economic importance, mostly as sources of food acquired through hunting or farming. Some species, particularly songbirds and parrots, are popular as pets. Other uses include the harvesting of guano (droppings) for use as a fertiliser. Birds figure prominently in all aspects of human culture from religion to poetry to popular music. About 120–130 species have become extinct as a result of human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. Currently about 1,200 species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities, though efforts are underway to protect them.
Endangered mammals
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in number, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. An endangered species is usually a taxonomic species, but may be another evolutionary significant unit. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has calculated the percentage of endangered species as 40 percent of all organisms based on the sample of species that have been evaluated through 2006. (Note: the IUCN groups all threatened species for their summary purposes.) Many nations have laws offering protection to these species: for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating preserves. Only a few of the many species at risk of extinction actually make it to the lists and obtain legal protection. Many more species become extinct, or potentially will become extinct, without gaining public notice.
Conservation status
The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that endangered species not living. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species; not simply the number remaining, but the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, known threats, and so on. The IUCN Red List is the best known conservation status listing.
Internationally, 189 countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened species. In the United States this plan is usually called a species Recovery Plan.
IUCN Red List Endangered species Endangered species under the IUCN Red List refers to a specific category of threatened species, and may also include critically endangered species. Endangered species under the IUCN Red List refers to a specific category of threatened species, and may also include critically endangered species.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species uses the term endangered species as a specific category of imperilment, rather than as a general term. Under the IUCN Categories and Criteria, endangered species is between critically endangered and vulnerable. Also critically endangered species may also be counted as endangered species and fill all the criteria
The more general term used by the IUCN for species at risk of extinction is threatened species, which also includes the less-at-risk category of vulnerable species together with endangered and critically endangered.
IUCN categories include:
* Extinct: the last remaining member of the species had died, or is presumed beyond reasonable doubt to have died. Examples: Thylacine, Dodo, Passenger Pigeon
* Extinct in the wild: captive individuals survive, but there is no free-living, natural population. Examples: Alagoas Curassow
* Critically endangered: faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Examples: Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Arakan Forest Turtle, Javan Rhino
* Endangered: faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future. Examples: Cheetah, Blue Whale, Snow Leopard, African Wild Dog
* Vulnerable: faces a high risk of extinction in the medium-term. Examples: Gaur, Lion, Wolverine
* Least Concern: no immediate threat to the survival of the species. Examples: Brown Rat, Nootka Cypress