Rare animals... No matter how inventive peoplehe can neither create a new kind of animal,or reconstruct the destroyed look. J. Darrell.

Panda is very rare animal. It is found only in the mountain forests of central China, where it grows only food - bamboo. Bamboo is not very nutritious, so the panda eats hours a day. In very rare panda cubs are born, so their number is low.

Siberian Tiger Siberian tiger, the largest in the world, the only representative of the species living in the snow. Now in Russia there are more than 450 species.

White Crane White Crane is listed in the Red Book of Russia and the International list of rare and endangered species. In the late 90's cranes in the country had no more than three pairs. In the photo: white cranes raised in Oka State Nature Biosphere Reserve.

Snow leopard Snow leopard - the embodiment of the spirit of the mountains - the only resident highland areas. He lives in the 13th state, some of whom are Russia. Because of the inaccessibility of habitat and the small number of animals are poorly studied.

Desman In prehistoric times, muskrat lived throughout Europe. Now animal habitat was reduced to a few countries. Animals inhabit the underwater holes in the flood waters. They often fall into the network, and easily killed.

Polar bear The owner Arctic polar bears - the largest predator on the planet. With the impressive dimensions of the animal is moving well in the water, can swim in the sea for tens of kilometers.

Manatee attached to the person. It is known that for Columbus caught one of these "sea maidens" and put in a pond:she lived for 26 yearsand sail to the call of the people.But then it became clearthat manatee meat is tasty.Church declared him a fish, that the meat could beis not only in ordinary days,but in fasting Friday. So began the extermination of manatees. And in these days of the rare animals and a few populations are often killed in collisions with ships.

Passenger pigeon The most striking and systematic extermination of a good example is the story of passenger pigeon. Once upon millions flock of birds flying in the skies of North America. Pigeons were very good in taste. Therefore, destruction of pigeons turned into fun. In one of the novels of James Fenimore Cooper's very well described as approaching flocks of pigeons all urban residents poured into the streets, armed with slingshots, guns, sometimes with guns. Killed as many pigeons as they could kill. Pigeons laid in the cellar refrigerated, ready to fight, feed the dog, or just thrown away. Efforts have even shooting competition pigeon. The last passenger pigeon, named Martha, died at the zoo in 1914.

Дронт Drond Drond - has lost the ability to fly a bird, formerly belong to the family of pigeons. Lived on the island of Mauritius. He nest on the ground, where he was in complete safety. However, he not only lost the ability to fly, but completely forgot how to recognize the enemy and fear him. European colonists slaughtered because of its tasty meat, and brought sailors cleaned goat ate bush served dodo shelter, dogs and cats chased and caught the old birds, pigs devour the eggs and chicks, and after picking them sneaking rat remains of the feast. One of the skeletons is isolated in the Darwin Museum in Moscow. In the second half of the XX century, the dodo became a symbol of the struggle for the protection and conservation of rare species.

Sea cow Sea cow - mammals of the sirens, much like the manatee and dugong, but it was much bigger than them. Large herds of these animals were swimming at the surface of the water, feeding on seaweed (kelp), because of the animal and was called the sea cow. Its meat, which was very tasty and did not smell of fish, was used extensively in the food, so Steller's cow was completely wiped out in 30 years, despite the impressive size of the population.

Caroline parrot Extinct due to ruthless extermination by hunters. Such a strong prosecution explained the harm caused by these parrots fields and fruit trees. Last parrot died in a zoo in 1918.

Measures to protect endangered species Only in the twentieth century, humanity has come to the conclusion that the destruction of rare species of animals can cause irreparable damage to the environment. However, the first attempts to preserve the species often unsuccessful. In particular, this was due to the fact that zoologists tried to revive the form, having at its disposal only one or two pairs of individuals. According to the study, currently the extinction of animal species is 100 to 1,000 times faster than the rate corresponding to the normal process of evolution. Contribution to changing this situation made by Gerald Durrell. He became the first man, who turned the zoo Institute breeding rare species.The positive outcome of the work on species conservation is achieved when individuals become large enough for successful resettlement in their native habitat, or in a similar environment if habitat destroyed by man. Thus already saved a lot of animals.If the animal is a rare, but not yet on the verge of extinction, the practice of creating reserves.