Saving Endangered Animals

People all over the world are working to help save endangered animals from extinction. There are conservation organisations which try to make people aware of the problems facing wild animals. Some of the ways in which they are being saved include habitat protection, captive breeding, setting up nature reserves and parks and using alternative products in place of products from rare animals.

Governments can help by making international agreements between countries to protects animals (many countries, for example, have agreed to stop hunting the blue whale) and their habitats. There has  been agreement from a number of countries in June 2010 to protect the rainforests and prevent deforestation through financial backing.

Scientists are setting up gene banks in which they keep an animal's genetic material (the 'building blocks' of a living thing) in suspended animation. This technique may make it possible in the future to 'grow' a new animal of the same species.  Kew Gardens, London has a seed bank in case plant species become extinct in the wild.