World Wildlife Day should be our focus every day, celebrating and protecting our earth’s diverse, unique, majestic, and vital species, along with many of the critical issues that are threatening them around the world. The goal is to institute change on a global scale so that these precious animals will continue to exist for generations to come.
The United Nations has dedicated this year to Big Cats: Predators Under Threat. These magnificent animals include such iconic species such as: cheetahs, jaguars, leopards, lions, pumas, snow leopards and tigers.
Tragically, as noted on the UN’s website, big cats have undergone a massive decline in recent times. Sadly, they are all under threat from habitat loss, climate change, poaching, illicit trafficking, and human-wildlife conflict.
“We are the cause of their decline,” Secretary-General António Guterres shared as part of a poignant message posted on the United Nations website, “so we can also be their salvation.”
Currently, all eight species of big cats are listed on Appendix I or II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which estimates that tiger populations plummeted by 95% in the last 100 years, and lion populations dropped by 40% in just 20 years.
WWF
The status of these species is also found on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List and range from “Threatened” to “Vulnerable” to “Endangered.”
“Many brave park rangers and law enforcement officers are fighting wildlife crimes in the field, putting their lives at risk to protect our most threatened species,” stated Guterres.“But Wildlife conservation is a shared responsibility.”
Some of the ways that the UN suggests you can help save big cats is listed HERE; but please remember that it is imperative that we do what we can every day to help raise awareness about the plight of all species in peril around the world and contribute to protect them.
Remember to use these hashtags to spread awareness worldwide: #PredatorsUnderThreat #WWD2018 #BigCats #iProtectBigCats
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