Red Book

The totality of animals and plants on Earth is sometimes called the gene pool of the planet. It was formed over millions of years and slowly changed according to the changes of geological epochs. With the development of human activity on Earth, the living conditions of organisms began to change rapidly. First of all, animals suffered, many of them began to be quickly exterminated by man, inventing more and more new ways and tools of hunting. With the onset of the technological process, deforestation takes place, plowing up the land for growing agricultural plants, which has dramatically changed the living conditions of numerous animals and birds.

The danger of the impoverishment of the nature of the planet was not immediately understood. Already after many species disappeared, people realized that it was irrevocable, that no modern means of scientific and technological progress could restore them. The rate of species extinction has accelerated alarmingly. The number of destroyed species for some groups of vertebrates reached 10-20%. It was a tragedy.

The genetic uniqueness, uniqueness of animal and plant species makes the destruction of each of them tantamount to the loss of a priceless gift of nature. Polluted water and air can be purified and restored, but it is impossible to revive a species that has disappeared.

In the 19th century about 70 species of birds and mammals have become extinct, and in the first half of this century another 40 species have disappeared from the face of the Earth. Currently, a real threat hangs over more than 200 species of animals and birds alone.

For individual representatives of the fauna, one can also name the exact dates of their disappearance. Back in the 10th century, the wild bull tour was widespread in the forests and forest-steppes of Europe. In 1627, the last animal died. In 1879, the last tarpan disappeared, and as early as the 18th century, large herds of these wild horses grazed in the southern Russian steppes. It took only 27 years to exterminate the wonderful sea cow, first discovered by scientists near the Commander Islands in 1741. For a little over a hundred years, millions of flocks of passenger pigeons were exterminated in America - the last one died in 1914.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has taken the initiative to save endangered species. In 1962, after hard and painstaking work, the Commission for the Protection of Rare and Endangered Species prepared the first draft list of rare species of birds and mammals. In 1966, the updated list was issued in a special Red Book.

Nature matters Let's work together to preserve the diversity of plant and animal species for our poor generations.

The Red Book is a list of endangered animals or plants, a distress signal addressed to the governments and the public of individual countries. The book indicates the current and past distribution, abundance, reproduction, conservation measures taken, and even a whole program of practical measures to save rare and endangered species. The International Red Book is maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

Each country, on the territory of which a species listed in the Red Book lives, bears a moral responsibility to all mankind for the conservation of this treasure of nature. The "Red Book" is constantly being adjusted: some species are excluded when the danger of their extinction has passed, others are additionally included as information about the threat of their destruction becomes available.

Red light is a prohibition signal that people around the world understand. Therefore, this was the name of the book of facts about the state of those species of animals and plants that are endangered or have become rare.

In the Red Book, sheets of different colors. The red sheets contain information about endangered species. The next gradation is “vulnerable species”, information about them is given on yellow sheets. Information about "rare" species, about those whose condition inspires concern, is printed on white sheets. There are also joyful ones - green sheets contain information about restored and already out of danger species. Unfortunately, there are not many such lists. The gray lists of the Red Book are for "indeterminate species" - little studied and usually rare.

For each species of plant or animal in the Red Book, information is given according to a strict scheme: status, distribution, habitats, abundance, captive breeding and cultivation, protection measures. The Red Book as an official document is sent to all state and public institutions of the country related to nature protection.

Threatened species are those species that have declined dramatically in numbers and range and continue to decline as a result of extirpation, habitat destruction or other causes. These species cannot survive without active human intervention. To save them, it is necessary to create special nature reserves, nurseries for artificial construction.

These animals include:

Mammals - the Amur tiger (about 150 individuals have been preserved), the snow leopard (about 1000 individuals), the leopard (no more than 100 individuals of the subspecies of the Near East and East Siberian), the cheetah (no more than 10 individuals), the caracal (about 350-500 individuals), kulan (about 1000 individuals), Bukhara deer (about 625 individuals), goral (about 400-500 individuals).

Birds include: white-backed albatross (about 200 birds), red-footed ibis (almost disappeared, flights from Korea are possible, in total no more than 14 birds live in the world, white crane, or Siberian Crane (about 360 individuals), Japanese crane (no more than 300 birds all over the world), mountain goose (about 1000 individuals), desert falcon, or shaheen (about 50 individuals).

Rare mammals include: white bear, red wolf, giant mole rat bandaging, Tien Shan brown bear, striped hyena, manul, honey badger, bezoar goat, putorana bighorn sheep, etc. And rare birds include: pink and curly pelicans, black stork , flamingo, lesser swan, barnacle goose, dry goose, mandarin duck, white-tailed eagle, golden eagle, kumai, steppe eagle, osprey, peregrine falcon, saker falcon, wild grouse bustard, little bustard, francolin.

From amphibians: the Semirechensky frogtooth, the Caucasian salamander, the Carpathian newt, the Syrian spadefoot, the rush toad. Of the reptiles, the Far Eastern tortoise, the Mediterranean tortoise, the Crimean gecko, the ruin agama, the hentaunian roundhead, the gray monitor lizard, the leopard snake, the cobra, the Caucasian viper.