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October 17, 2008 |
World Animal Day
World Animal Day was observed earlier this month - on October 4th. Started in Florence Italy in 1931 at a convention of ecologists, World Animal Day has since expanded its focus from its original intent, which was to bring attention to endangered or threatened species. The day is now set aside as a time to reflect on all of the animals we share this world with, and our involvement with them - and to spur action to commemorate that respectful relationship. Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third are probably threatened with extinction, according to an update of of the Red List (an inventory of biodiversity issued by the IUCN), released on October 6, 2008. Below is a collection of recent photos of animals around the world - Happy (belated) World Animal Day. (38 photos total)

Green Sea Turtles in the waters of Bora Bora, Tahiti are seen in this undated photograph from an exhibit titled "Irreplaceable: Wildlife in a Warming World," recently shown at the Peerless building in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. The exhibit showcased animals most threatened by global warming, such as green sea turtles. The gender of sea turtle eggs are determined by temperature, which means global warming would upset the natural gender balance. (Michele Westmorland)

A grizzly bear looks on at St-Felicien Wildlife Zoo in St-Felicien, Quebec September 24, 2008. Parks Canada estimates that up to 20,000 grizzly bears remain in western Alberta, the Yukon and Northwest Territories and British Columbia. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada lists grizzly bear as a "Special Concern". (REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger) #

A blacktip shark is seen in this undated handout image released on October 10, 2008. Scientists using DNA testing have confirmed the second-known instance of "virgin birth" in a shark - a female of this species named Tidbit that produced a baby without a male shark. The shark died after being removed from the tank at a Virginia aquarium for a veterinary examination, and a subsequent necropsy revealed that Tidbit was carrying a fully developed shark pup nearly ready to be born. Virgin birth, known scientifically as parthenogenesis, also has been documented in Komodo dragons, snakes, birds, bony fish and amphibians. (REUTERS/Matthew D. Potenski) #

Bears are seen in their enclosure in a reservation near Zarnesti, 250km north of Bucharest, Romania on August 11, 2008. With half of Europe's brown bears living in Romania's largely unspoiled Carpathian mountains, environmentalists and local authorities are struggling to keep the wild animals and residents in mountain towns like Brasov safe from each other. (REUTERS/Mihai Barbu) #

This new species of blind, subterranean, predatory ant, Martialis heureka, was discovered in the Amazon by Christian Rabeling at The University of Texas at Austin. It belongs to the first new subfamily of living ants discovered since 1923, and is a descendant of one of the first ant lineages to evolve over 120 million years ago. (Reuters/ C. Rabeling & M. Verhaagh) #

A giant kangaroo rat is seen in this undated photo provided by the Nature Conservancy. When the San Joaquin Valley was an arid grassy plain, giant kangaroo rats were the seed-hording gardeners that helped propagate native plants. Now scientists are turning to satellite technology to determine how climate change and rainfall patterns are affecting the endangered species' remaining habitat. (AP Photo/University of California, Berkeley, John Roser) #

This photo, released on September 19, 2008, shows a piece of soft coral recently found on Australia's coral reefs. Hundreds of new marine species have been found there recently, surprising an international team of biologists who announced details of their findings September 18, 2008. The three expeditions to Lizard and Heron islands, and Ningaloo Reef, included a first systematic scientific inventory of spectacular soft corals, named octocorals for the eight tentacles around each polyp. (GARY GRANITCH/AFP/Getty Images) #

A halo around the Sun is seen behind a Rothschild giraffe as it leans over a wall to take food from the hands of visitors at The Giraffe Centre in the Lang'ata suburb of Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008. Run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, The Giraffe Centre was founded in 1979 and aims to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) #

This handout picture from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) dated July 19, 2008 shows a gray whale emerging offshore in North-Eastern Sakhalin in Russia's Far East. Russian environmental groups launched legal action against an oil and gas project led by US energy giant Exxon on October 3, 2008, for threatening critically endangered whales in Russia's far east. (GRISHA TSIDULKO/AFP/Getty Images) #

Indah, a three week old Malayan tapir chews on a twig during her first photocall at Edinburgh zoo, Scotland October 16, 2008. Malayan tapirs, which are an endangered species, are hoofed animals related to rhinos and horses and are found in the forests of Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and Sumatra. (REUTERS/David Moir) #

Narwhals seen along the floe edge in Arctic Bay, Canada. The whales are pushing under the ice to feed on cod. They come up in seal holes and rotten ice in order to catch a breath. This undated photo is part of an exhibit titled "Irreplaceable: Wildlife in a Warming World," recently shown at the Peerless building in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. (Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Image Collection) #

David White, of Wayne, New Jersey, holds his Grand Champion sphynx named Good Golly Miss Molly, at a press preview for the 6th Annual CFA Iams Cat Championship at Madison Square Garden on October 15, 2008 in New York City. The cat show will feature New York's largest feline shopping mall and a cat adoption garden. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images) #

This undated handout picture shows a Common Kingfisher with a fish in his beak. Germany's environmental protection organisations NABU (Naturschutzbund) and LBV (Landesbund fuer Vogelschutz) announced on October 10, 2008 that they had nominated the Common Kingfisher as "Bird of the Year 2009". (MANFRED DELPHO/AFP/Getty Images) #

Amur tigers Sasha (L) and Yuri, recently transferred from Edinburgh Zoo, fight over food in their new enclosure at The Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie, near Aviemore in Scotland on October 6, 2008. With only 500 Amur tigers remaining in the wild around the Amur river valley in the far east of Russia, it is hoped that the pair will continue to contribute to the worldwide breeding programme from their new home in the Scottish Highlands. (REUTERS/David Moir) #

Hristina Hristova, a veterinary surgeon, holds and comforts a Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) after it was shot by poachers. The procedure took place in the wildlife rehabilitation, rescue and breeding center of Stara Zagora, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Monday, Oct. 13, 2008. The center is unique in the Balkans, its goal being the rehabilitation, medical treatment, recovery and release into the wild of the rescued birds and animals. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov) #

The Capron Park Zoo in Attleboro, Massachusetts recently acquired a rare male white lion named Ramses, seen here basking in the afternoon sunshine. He is housed with two female lionesses who are sisters and who both carry the gene for the white color form. The zoo hopes to breed the male to the females. (Michele McDonald/Globe Staff) #

Emperor Penguins are seen in an undated photograph from an exhibit titled "Irreplaceable: Wildlife in a Warming World," recently shown at the Peerless building in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Warmer temperatures in Antarctica are causing declines in krill, one of the penguin's main food source. (Kevin Schaffer) #

Sangworn, a mahout (elephant driver), stands with his 13 year old elephant, Bussaba, at his temporary camp September 26, 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. While the elephant is a symbol of Thailand, it is a fairly common site to see the unemployed and homeless animals roaming the city streets begging for food. The tame elephants dodge the traffic as their mahouts sell sugar cane by the bag to tourists who then feed them. Thai officials frown upon the practice and have passed laws banning elephants from roadways but the mahouts still come risking fines in order to survive. Elephants have been big business for the country for centuries but now they are reduced to a major tourist attraction. Elephants are trained to paint, play musical instruments, and even kick soccer balls. Until Thailand banned logging in 1989, many Asian elephants were laborers working in the jungles. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) #
More links and information
World Animal Day - official site
Wildlife Conservation Society - official site
Endangered Species - NYTimes.com Topics Page
The Red List - International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources list of threatened species