Marine Turtles

Green Sea Turtle

Marine turtles have traveled the seas for over 100 million years, surviving longer than most of the prehistoric animals with which they once shared the planet–they have survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and are still found in the world's oceans. Female turtles nest on tropical and subtropical beaches around the globe.

Unfortunately, three of the seven existing species are critically endangered with extinction, three are endangered and the status of the seventh species remains unknown. Threats include hunting for meat, shell and eggs; habitat destruction; fisheries bycatch; pollution; boat strikes; and introduced predators have wiped out entire turtle populations, or reduced them to mere shadows of their former numbers.

Other Resources"Secrets of the Olive Ridley"Check the progress of tagged Olive Ridley turtles in this Flash-based presentation, brought to you by WWF Australia. Hawksbills of the Caribbean(Spanish)

Marine Turtles (WWF)

Species
Ecology
Conservation Results
Featured Projects
Field Notes
Photo Gallery
Publications

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Snow Leopard

Snow Leopards (WWF)

The snow leopard is an endangered big cat found in dramatically diminishing numbers in the rugged and mountainous terrain of Central Asia and the Himalayan region. The remaining animals live in only 12 countries in South and Central Asia. The snow leopard is currently threatened by hunting for the illegal wildlife trade and revenge killings by herders; habitat loss; and diminished food supply. It is estimated these threats are reducing the snow leopard population to numbers approaching those of the endangered tiger. The remaining animals live in only 12 countries in South and Central Asia.

Ecology
Featured Projects
Photo Gallery
Publications

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American Pika

Sadly, the American pika, Ochotona princeps, a small flower-gathering rabbit relative, may be one of the first mammals in North America known to fall victim to global warming.

American pikas are typically inhabit rocky areas, called talus, within alpine regions of the western United States and southwestern Canada. Since food is difficult to obtain in winter in the alpine environment, the pikas cut, sun-dry, and later store vegetation for winter use in characteristic 'hay piles', earning the name 'ecosystem engineers'.

According to research, global warming appears to have contributed to local extinctions of pika populations. Become part of the solution to global warming and help American pikas.

Pikas (WWF)

Pikas

Ecology
Science

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Saiga Antelope

Saiga antelope

Saiga tatarica : Distribution: China (ex), Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland (ex), Russian Federation, Turkmenistan, Ukraine (ex), Uzbekistan

The rapid decline of this nomadic herding antelope featured prominently in the launch of the 2002 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in which it was listed as Critically Endangered, the highest category of threat. The saiga antelope inhabits the open dry steppe grasslands and semi-arid deserts of Central Asia and the Russian Federation, and the plight of the saiga is an indicator for the state of these fragile ecosystems. Saiga numbers have plummeted 95% from about 1 million in 1990 to less than 50,000 today. The main cause of this catastrophic decline is poaching, both for horn and meat.


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Black Rhinoceros

Black rhinoceros courtesy of Operation Charm
Credit: © WWF-Canon / Roger Hooper
Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), Kenya

Rhinos are one of the largest remaining free-roaming mammals. They play an important role in ecosystems by serving as "landscape architects" of their habitat, acting as seed dispersers. Rhinos consume plants and since it can take a rhino more than three days to digest a meal, seeds can be transported a significant distance before they are deposited in droppings. Thus, rhino dung is important to ecosystems through seed dispersal and through enhancement of soil fertility. The existence of this majestic species is increasingly threatened, due primarily to poaching and habitat loss.

Black rhinos
Southern black rhino
Southwestern black rhino
Eastern black rhino
Western black rhino
White rhinos
Northern White Rhino
Southern White Rhino

African rhinos
Asian rhinos
Greater one-horned (Indian)
Javan
Sumatran

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Tiger

Tigers (Operation Charm)

Tigers (WWF)

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Roots

. . . roll-over image links for previews or follow the theme trails by clicking on each image to proceed to the next . . .

Biological evolution generated us from a common ancestor that also gave rise to chimpanzees and bonobos. (This hominid timeline implies a linear evolution for hominids, whereas a pruned bush would be more accurate.)

We share more than 98% of our DNA sequences with chimpanzees, indicating that our evolutionary lines diverged 7 to 5 million years ago. In general, the later the analysis, the more recent the esimated split. The ancestor of chimpanzees and bonobos are estimated to have split again between 0.89 and 0.86 million years ago, and the two common chimpanzee subspecies are estimated to have diverged about 0.46 million years ago.

Even though our advantages over our cousins result from a regulatory-gene-mutation that permitted development of a greater brain/body size ratio, biological mutation/reproductive selection did not care whether or not we were otherwise inherently vastly superior in rationality/morality.

We seem to have inherited from this common ancestor a nature that lies somewhere between aggressive chimpanzies and sex-obsessed, peaceful bonobos. Possibly chimpanzees and bonobos diverged from a midway-natured common ancestor. The environments in which chimps and bonobos now live are comparatively more challenging in the case of chimps, no doubt necessitating – and so selecting for – their aggressive behaviour.

. . . continue