{"id":927,"date":"2018-03-03T12:27:42","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T10:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.ambogdan.com\/?p=927"},"modified":"2020-11-03T19:05:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T17:05:10","slug":"world-wildlife-day-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ambogdan.com\/world-wildlife-day-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"World Wild Life Day 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
World Wildlife Day 2018 is celebrated on March 3rd, under the theme\u00a0\u201cBig cats: predators under threat”.\u00a0<\/em>It’s an opportunity to celebrate Mother Nature’s creative power and generosity. Today is the day to remind ourselves\u00a0“the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human induced reduction of species, which have wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Every two years World Wildlife organization issues the Living Planet Report that uses the Living Planet Index (LPI) as a measure of the state of the world’s biological diversity based on population trends of vertebrate species from terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats. 2016 Living Planet Report revealed the extremely troubling and ugly truth humanity needs to face.<\/p>\n “For the first time since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, we face a global mass extinction of wildlife,”<\/em> says Mike Barrett, director of science and policy at WWF-UK, in a statement. “We ignore the decline of other species at our peril \u2014 for they are the barometer that reveals our impact on the world that sustains us.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The overall decline of all three LPIs \u00a0between 1970 and 2012 posses a real threat to Mother Nature and humans as well:<\/p>\n According to 2017\u00a0Red List<\/a>\u00a0of The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, \u00a0counted a total of 24,431 threatened species of animals and organisms as of 2017. Also, a total number of 10,972 flowering plants were considered as threatened species in the same year.<\/p>\n Big cats, just as many other endangered species, are facing a variety of threats, yet human activities are mostly responsible for them. I\u2019m only going to add that habitat loss and degradation, food systems, climate change and species over-exploitation are the top four major drivers for this decline. For more details, please read\u00a02016 Living Planet Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n The expanded definition of wild cats include lion, tiger, leopard and jaguar \u2014 the 4 largest wild cats that can roar, but also cheetah, snow leopard, puma, clouded leopard, etc. The big cats have a global distribution as they live in Asia, and North, Central and South America.<\/p>\n According to United Nations\u2019 official statements, big cats population has declined in the past century at an alarming rate due to the loss of habitat and prey, conflicts with people, poaching and illegal trade. For example, tiger populations plummeted by 95% over the past 100 years and African lion populations dropped by 40% in just 20 years.<\/p>\n24,431 Endangered species of animals and organisms<\/h4>\n
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Big Cats: Predators under Threat<\/h2>\n