Endangered Species Day is an opportunity for people young and old to learn about the importance of protecting endangered species and everyday actions that people can take to help protect our nation’s disappearing wildlife and last remaining open space. Protecting America’s wildlife and plants today is a legacy we leave to our children and grandchildren, so that all Americans can experience the rich variety of native species that help to define our nation.

Started by the United States Senate, Endangered Species Day is the third Friday in May. Every year, thousands of people throughout the country celebrate Endangered Species Day at parks, wildlife refuges, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, libraries, schools and community centers. You can participate in festivals, field trips, park tours, community clean-ups, film showings, classroom presentations, and many other fun and educational activities.(Source)

5 Ways to Celebrate Endangered Species Day:

TAKE ACTION - Tell the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that reviewing the environmental risks of large scale projects is critical for wildlife.

Update your Facebook Timeline pic - Show your support for endangered species with a photo of your favorite wildlife species. Let us know you did it by including @National Wildlife Federation in your status message.

Help spread the word via Twitter - Share an Endangered Species Day story or wildlife message with your friends and family. Make sure to include #speciesday in your tweet.


Attend an Endangered Species Day event! Events are held across the country to highlight endangered species stories.

Help Kids Learn About Biodiversity! NWF's Eco-Schools has resources to get students ready to celebrate biodiversity and conservation.
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Today marks one of the least known, but most significant, holidays of the entire year -- Endangered Species Day. Launched by the United States Senate, the annual event takes place the third Friday in May and is celebrated by thousands of people throughout the country at parks, wildlife refuges, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, libraries, schools and community centers.

Endangered Species Day provides an opportunity for people of all ages to learn about the efforts that are currently underway to preserve our world's wildlife populations and discover how they can help support these initiatives. It is also the perfect forum to educate the general public on topics such as wildlife, plant and natural resource conservation and welfare, and the significance of creating a legacy for future generations that we can all be proud of.

Perhaps most importantly, today's celebration offers a platform to discuss the Endangered Species Act, or the "ESA," a critical piece of legislation designed to protect imperiled wildlife and plants from extinction. The ESA has proven vital for the continued conservation of hundreds of species since its creation in 1973 -- some of its most well-known beneficiaries include the American bald eagle, the African elephant, the grizzly bear, the tiger and the Northern Atlantic Right whale.

Unfortunately, implementing the Endangered Species Act is not without challenges. There is currently a laundry list of animals and plants seeking protection, and it has become increasingly evident that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- the federal agencies charged with administering the ESA -- cannot process the petitions fast enough.

This reality is especially disconcerting for animals such as African lions -- a species for which IFAW submitted a technical and scientific petition to list as Endangered under the ESA in March 2011. The review process for listing a species under the ESA now takes anywhere from two to five years to complete, and the sad truth is that irreversible damage can be done to these wildlife populations during that time.


For example, even if the U.S. government finds that African lions deserve the protections from trade that accompany a listing, literally hundreds -- if not thousands -- of individual lions will have been killed and imported into the country by American trophy hunters while the petition review process was underway. For a species that is believed to have only 35,000 individuals left in the wild, this could significantly harm some lion populations' chances of recovery. So while the ESA is still considered one of the strongest and most important animal conservation laws in the world, there is a need to improve the way it is being implemented in order to provide timely emergency relief for species struggling to survive.

Endangered Species Day is guaranteed to be an eye-opening experience for anyone who participates. Today, thousands of Americans have the chance to learn about species in danger of extinction and the tools for -- and challenges to -- facilitating recovery.

With humanity already leaving an omnipresent footprint on the world, the Earth's animals and the ecosystems in which they live are now dependent on us for survival. It is our responsibility to ensure they are on our planet for generations to come. Establishing our legacy for tomorrow begins today.

Jeff Flocken is the DC office director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). For more information about IFAW's work to protect imperiled and endangered animals, please visit ifaw.org.
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Today many conservation organizations will be observing the newly formed Endangered Species Day. The purpose of this day is to recognize the conservation efforts aimed at keeping the endangered species all across America from disappearing forever due to extinction.

Many of the ecologists and biologists who have been taking an inventory of the world's biodiversity, suggest that we are in the midst of a “6th mass extinction. For example the dinosaurs, as in the kind of extinction that kills off massive numbers of lifeforms. The big difference with this current one is that it is happening faster than the past ones. What normally took thousands or hundreds of thousands of years in the past, is now taking only a couple of hundred years.

The U.S. Department of Interior recently settled with it's litigants this month and therefore hundreds of species of plants and animals will be given endangered species protection. Around 250 or so candidates for the Endangered Species Act will be given protection out of approximately 460 total. There will remain hundreds of species that will remain on the verge of becoming endangered. While the Central American Crocodile and the Indian Tiger are on an increase, other well known and beloved animals such as the South Pole Penquin are on the decline.

But all is not lost and there are still many things that can be done. The simplest way to make a difference is to voice your views to your representatives in our State and Federal legislatures, or contact your local Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters for restoration volunteer opportunities. Or you can simply do a search on “Save the _________” and then donate, and/or get involved (email or letter campaigns are always helpful).

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to take some action for the endangered ones soon because in the case of extinction, Time waits for no one! Happy Endangered Species Day and let your voices be heard!