One-fifth of animals are at risk of extinction

The number of animals living on Earth is declining rapidly, especially mammals, when about one fifth of animals are at risk of extinction. This is a warning given by experts on October 4, the World Animal Protection Day.

Expert Maria Vorontsova, Head of the Moscow Office of the International Animal Protection Fund, said animals such as rhinos, elephants and tigers are at risk of extinction. There are only 2,700 tigers left in the world.

There are nearly 400 Amur tigers in Russia's Far East. In addition, there are beautiful leopards of this area, but now there are only about 30-40 children left.

Photos: Wikipedia

Saiga antelope, 20 years ago, had about 2 million children, but now it is also reduced sharply. On the territory of Russia there are Saiga antelope herds of 3,000-5,000, out of a total of 180,000 worldwide. The number of polar bears and walruses living in Laptev sea are also decreasing.

According to Vorontsova expert, the diversity of the animal world is rapidly reduced mainly due to human impact. The phenomenon of climate change warms the Earth due to a part of human responsibility that results in extinction of some animals.

Moreover, widespread deforestation around the world also contributes significantly to the decline in the number of animals.

According to data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in the last 5 years, more than 840 animals have disappeared. According to many different assessments, the rate of destruction of animals is happening at a rate that is hundreds and even thousands of times faster than their normal evolution, meanwhile, to recover. Species populations take centuries.

Every year, in Africa, poachers have killed about 60,000 elephants for ivory. The proceeds from this brutal act are used to support terrorist organizations. Experts say 40% of the support for terrorism comes from ivory trade and illegal hunting.