​SAVE THE RED PANDA

Ambassador Species - An animal whose role includes handling and/or training by staff or volunteers for interaction with the public and in support of institutional education and conservation goals. (Heimbuch, 2019)

 

Breeding Season - A specific season of the year in which many animals, including mammals and birds, mate, which ensures that offspring are produced only at a certain time of the year. (Breeding season 2019)

 

Carnivorous - flesh-eating (Carnivorous 2020)

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CITES - (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. (CITES, 2020)

 

Climate Change - Broad term referring to long-term changes in any aspects of the earth's climate, especially temperature and precipitation. (Miller, 2012) 

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Conservation - a careful preservation and protection of something (Conservation. January 09, 2020) 

especially : planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect

 

Deforestation - Removal of trees from a forested area. (Miller, 2012) 

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Ecosystem - One or more communities of different species interacting with one another and with the chemical and physical factors making up their nonliving environment. (Miller, 2012) 

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Ecosystem Services - Natural services or natural capital that support life on earth and are essential to the quality of human life and the functioning of the world's economies. (Miller, 2012) 

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Ecotourism - broadly defined as low impact travel to endangered and often undisturbed locations. (Briney, 2019)

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Endangered Species - Wild Species with so few individual survivors that the species could soon become extinct in all or most of its natural range. (Miller, 2012) 

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Environment - All external conditions, factors, matter, and energy, living and nonliving, that affect any living organism or other specified system. (Miller, 2012) 

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Extinction - complete disappearance of a species from the earth. It happens when a species cannot adapt and successfully reproduce under new environmental conditions or when a species evolves into one or more new species. (Miller, 2012) 

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Food Chain - Series of organisms in which each eats or decomposes the preceding one. (Miller, 2012) 

 

Forest Biome - Biome with enough average annual precipitation to support the growth of tree species and smaller forms of vegetation. (Miller, 2012) 

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Graze - to feed on growing grass and pasturage, as do cattle, sheep, etc. (Graze, 2020) 

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Global Warming - Warming of the earth’s lower atmosphere (troposphere) because of increases in the concentrations of one or more greenhouse gases. It can result in climate change that can last for decades to thousands of years. (Miller, 2012) 

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Habitat - Place or type of place where an organism or population of organisms lives. (Miller, 2012) 

 

Habitat Fragmentation - Breakup of a habitat into smaller pieces, usually as a result of human activities. (Miller, 2012) 

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HIPPCO - Acronym used by conservation biologist for the six most important secondary causes of premature extinction: Habitat destruction, degradation and fragmentation; Invasive (nonnative) species; Population growth (too many people consuming too many resources); Pollution; Climate change; and Overexploitation. (Miller, 2012) 

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Indicator Species - Species whose decline serves as early warnings that a community or ecosystem is being degraded. (Miller, 2012) 

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Infrastructure - the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and

communication systems, power plants, and schools. (Infrastructure. (n.d.).

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Inhabit - to live or dwell in (a place), as people or animals (Inhabit 2020)

 

Invasive Species - Species that migrate into an ecosystem or are deliberately or accidentally introduced into an ecosystem by humans. (Miller, 2012) 

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Livestock - The horses, cattle, sheep, and other useful animals kept or raised on a farm or ranch. (Livestock 2019)

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Livestock Herding - the practice of caring for roaming groups of livestock over a large area. (National Geographic Society, 2012)

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Logging - the process, work, or business of cutting down trees and transporting the logs to sawmills. (Logging 2019)

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Mammal - any vertebrate of the class Mammalia, having the body more or less covered with hair, nourishing the young with milk from the mammary glands, and, with the exception of the egg-laying monotremes, giving birth to live young. (Mammal 2020)

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Overfishing - Harvesting so many fish of a species, especially immature individuals, that not enough breeding stock is left to replenish the species and it becomes unprofitable to harvest them. (Miller, 2012) 

 

Overgrazing - Destruction of vegetation when too many grazing animals feed too long on a specific area of pasture or rangeland and exceed the carrying capacity of a range land or pasture area. (Miller, 2012) 

 

Poaching - when an animal is killed illegally. It usually occurs when an animal possesses something that is considered valuable (i.e. the animal's fur or ivory. (11 facts about Poaching Animals)

 

Pollution - Undesirable change in the physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of air, water, soil, or food that can adversely affect the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms. (Miller, 2012) 

 

Prey - an animal hunted or seized for food, especially by a carnivorous animal. (Prey 2020)

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Sanctuary - a refuge for wildlife where predators are controlled and hunting is illegal. (Sanctuary 2019)

 

Threatened Species - Wild species that is still abundant in its natural range but is likely to become endangered because of a decline in numbers. (Miller, 2012)