May 15, 2009

Endangered Species Day!!!


Today is Endangered Species Day! I'm joining with the National Wildlife Federation to bring awareness to endangered species. My pick is the Florida Panther! There are 100 or fewer left in the wild. Pretty sad, isn't it? It seems they are going to go extinct and we will lose this beautiful cat forever. I don't know about you, but that makes me mad!!!

Because there are so few in the wild they sometimes inbreed. This has caused genetic problems and many health problems for the species. Another problem Florida Panthers face is habitat destruction. The state of Florida has a growing population so they have less and less area in which to live. This is causing them to move more and more into human populated areas and then these fantastic cats are often hit by cars.

I want everyone to join me in spreading the word about endangered species. A list for each state can be found by clicking here.

2 comments:

Pam said...

I'm going to check out the list for my state.
Ash

Rosemary said...

I don't think there are any endangered species in NY. Although NYC is huge, the state itself actually has a lot of country (non-city) in it, which is where we live. I think that right now the endangered species closest to my heart is the tiger: they are so beautiful, I am sad to read how their numbers are getting smaller all the time. I saw a show once at the state fair where this organization (I forget the name) worked with tiger cubs to get them familiar with humans---the workers actually got to play with the cubs. It is their belief that the only way to preserve the species is this way, in captivity. I don't know about that, but it sure was fun to watch them play and wrestle with the cubs.