Today is Endangered Species Day: ACAP works to conserve 11 of them

A Critically Endangered Tristan Albatross family on Gough Island; artwork by Di Roberts from photographs by Tom McSherry & Michelle Risi

Today is Endangered Species Day, a campaign of the Endangered Species Coalition, a USA-based environmental NGO.  The coalition’s mission “is to stop the human-caused extinction of our nation’s at-risk species, to protect and restore their habitats, and to guide these fragile populations along the road to recovery”.

“Every year on the third Friday in May, thousands of people around the world participate in Endangered Species Day by celebrating, learning about, and taking action to protect threatened and endangered species.  Wildlife refuges, zoos, aquariums, gardens, schools, libraries, museums, community groups, nonprofits, and individuals hold special programs or events for people of all ages.  Due to the global coronavirus crisis, the programs organized for Endangered Species Day 2021 will primarily be online events, digital actions, and remote activities.”  2021 will be the 16th time the day has been marked.

Eleven of the 31 ACAP-listed albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters have been categorized as either globally Critically Endangered or Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), nine of them being albatrosses.  The three Critically Endangered species are the Tristan Diomedea dabbenena and Waved Phoebastria irrorata Albatrosses and the Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus.

And tomorrow is World Biodiversity Day, known more formally as the International Day for Biological Diversity.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 21 May 2021