STATUS: Not federally listed as endangered or threatened. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Polar Bear Specialist Group lists most populations as "stable." DESCRIPTION: The polar bear rivals the Kodiak bear as the largest four-footed carnivore on Earth and can live up to 25 years. Although the polar bear’s coat appears white, each individual hair is actually a clear hollow tube that channels the sun’s energy directly to the bear’s skin and helps it stay warm. The polar bear’s entire body is furred, even the bottom of its paws. That helps prevent bears from slipping on the ice. The polar bear is classified as a marine mammal. Its feet are partially webbed for swimming, and its fur is water-repellent. A formidable predator, it has extremely sharp claws. SIZE: Males are 8 to 11 feet long and weigh 500 to 1,100 pounds but can reach as much as 1,500 pounds. Females are smaller, measuring 6 to 8 feet long, and weigh from 350 to 600 pounds, occasionally reaching 700 pounds. POPULATION: Worldwide there are thought to be 22,000-27,000 polar bears in 19 separate populations. They can be found in the United States, Canada, Russia, Greenland and on the Arctic islands of Norway. There are estimated to be about 3,000 to 5,000 polar bears in Alaska. RANGE: Polar bears are found throughout the Arctic and are the most nomadic of all bear species. They travel an average of 5,500 miles a year or 15 miles a day. In the United States, polar bears are located in two Alaskan populations: the Chukchi/Bering Seas of western Alaska and the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska. HABITAT: The entire circumpolar Arctic region is polar bear habitat. They are equally comfortable in the water and on land. Polar bears can be found on pack ice, coastal islands, coastlines and even out in Arctic waters. They are exceptional swimmers and have been observed in the sea more than 100 miles from the nearest land or pack ice. FOOD: Polar bears are strictly carnivores and feed or scavenge only meat. Their primary prey is the ringed seal though they also take bearded, harp and hooded seals and the occasional walrus youngster. They will also scavenge walrus and whale carcasses. That sometimes results in temporary aggregations of polar bears at such sites. Other species, such as the Arctic fox, rely entirely upon "polar bear left-overs" after the bears have eaten their fill of seal skin and blubber, leaving the remaining meat for such scavengers. BEHAVIOR: The two main focuses of this solitary creature's life are to conserve energy and to hunt. Only pregnant females dig dens and hibernate in the traditional sense for extended periods. The other bears may enter into what is referred to as "walking hibernation" where they remain active and continue to hunt and feed, even though some of their metabolic processes may slow (decreased heart rates, respiration, lowered temperatures, etc.). Polar bears depend mostly on their sense of smell to determine the location of prey. Their white coats make great camouflage for hunting seals, and they will wait patiently for hours next to a seal’s air hole waiting for the seal to take a breath. Once the seal arrives, the polar bear will use its immense strength and sharp claws to clutch the seal and drag it through the small blowhole. OFFSPRING: Females are able to breed at the age of five years. They dig dens either on the coastal mainland or out on the drifting pack ice in late October or early November, and then remain denned until the next spring. An average of two cubs are born, each weighing about 1 pound at birth and growing to about 15 pounds by the time they emerge in the spring. The cubs have much to learn and usually remain with their mothers for more than two years. THREATS: Polar bear populations are distributed in Artic regions throughout Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway. They must have pack ice to survive and can travel thousands of miles over the course of a year, following the advance and retreat of sea ice. Seal populations are abundant on pack ice, where currents and wind interact with the ice, continually melting and refreezing the edges, making it accessible to both predator and prey. Older, stable pack ice is essential to the polar bear’s continued existence. It is where polar bears hunt, mate and den. Pregnant females make dens in the soft deep snows of the ice. They will give birth in these dens and the snow will insulate both mother and cubs over the harsh Arctic winter. Without a stable ice pack to accumulate sufficient snow, there can be no dens. The ice is also the seal’s habitat. Polar bears are strong swimmers, but they are not adept at catching seals in open water. The ice is necessary for successful hunts, where the bears stalk the seals using their breathing holes. Changes in the conditions of the ice have forced seals to move and give birth in different areas, making it more difficult for the polar bears to find and feed on them. Without ready and plentiful food, pregnant female polar bears cannot build the fat reserves they need to survive a denning period. With shrinking ice and inaccessibility to prey, polar bears could be extinct by 2050. Their habitat is melting away. When animals lose their natural habitat they will seek other means to secure food. Just as black bears will come into towns and communities in search of food, polar bears, attracted by garbage or animal carcasses, will enter areas of human population. When they do so, they can be killed. Although it is illegal to kill a polar bear, human caused mortality still remains a factor in the decline of this endangered animal. To help save the polar bear, we must support strengthening of the Endangered Species Act and include the polar bears’ prey base, suspend new Arctic gas and oil development until the bear population and their sea-ice habitat are fully protected and eliminate all trophy hunting throughout the Artic, while remaining sensitive to indigenous people and their subsistence needs. Laws against poaching must be strictly enforced and programs implemented that offer rewards for information leading to their conviction. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Polar Bear from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Polar Bear from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Polar Bear Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Polar Bear

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Polar Bear Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Polar Bear is from you. WAF's Adopt A Polar Bear symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a polar bear for yourself or order an Adopt A Polar Bear as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Polar Bear Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A PENGUIN STATUS (U.S.): The Galapagos penguin is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. DESCRIPTION: Penguins are flightless sea birds. They can be many different colors from the chest up. Most species have black backs and white fronts. Penguins are able to control their body temperature on land by facing either their black back or white front to the sun. This coloration also camouflages them in the water. They have a thick layer of blubber that helps keep them warm. SIZE: There are 17 penguin species, varying greatly in size. The largest is the emperor penguin at 4 feet tall and about 65 to 90 pounds. The smallest is the little penguin, also known as the blue or fairy penguin, which weighs 2 pounds. LIFESPAN: Penguins can live up to 15 to 20 years in the wild. RANGE: Penguins are found on every continent in the southern hemisphere, from the Antarctic to the Galapagos Islands. FOOD: Penguins are carnivores and mostly eat krill, a tiny shrimp-like animal, and other fish. Their sharp, spine-like teeth allow them to catch fish up to 10 inches long, which they swallow head first. BEHAVIOR: With compact, streamlined bodies, penguins can swim an average of 2.5 to 5 miles per hour – using their wings as paddles – with some species swimming as fast as 7.5 miles per hour. They also "toboggan," laying on their belly and pushing themselves along the ice with their flippers and feet. Most penguin species spend several hours a day preening and waterproofing their feathers with an oil produced from a gland located above their tail feathers. Feathers are important to keep penguins warm and to keep cold water from touching their skin. OFFSPRING: Most penguin species gather in colonies in areas free from land predators during nesting. Many penguins build a nest of rocks, sticks or grass where one or two eggs are laid. Because penguins only eat in the ocean, they must fast while mating, incubating eggs and guarding chicks. The male and female usually take turns tending to the eggs and raising the chicks while the other mate returns to the ocean to eat. Adult feathers replace a chick’s down at about two to four months. Once the chick has adult feathers, it is ready to swim and hunt on its own. ANATOMY: Penguins are superbly adapted to an aquatic life. Their wings have become flippers, useless for flight in the air. In the water, however, penguins are astonishingly agile. Within the smooth plumage a layer of air is preserved, ensuring buoyancy. The air layer also helps insulate the birds in cold waters. On land, penguins use their tails and wings to maintain balance for their upright stance. All penguins have a white underside and a dark (mostly black) upperside. This is for camouflage. A predator looking up from below (such as an orca or a leopard seal) has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface. The dark plumage on their backs camouflages them from above. Diving penguins reach 6 to 12 km/h, though there are reports of velocities of 27 km/h (which are probably realistic in the case of startled flight). The small penguins do not usually dive deep; they catch their prey near the surface in dives that normally last only one or two minutes. Larger penguins can dive deep in case of need. Dives of the large Emperor Penguin have been recorded which reach a depth of 565 m (1870 ft) and last up to 20 minutes. Penguins either waddle on their feet or slide on their bellies across the snow, a movement called "tobogganing", which allows them to conserve energy and move relatively fast at the same time. Penguins have an excellent sense of hearing. Their eyes are adapted for underwater vision, and are their primary means of locating prey and avoiding predators; in air, conversely, they are nearsighted. Their sense of smell has not been researched so far. They are able to drink salt water safely because their supraorbital gland filters excess salt from the bloodstream. The salt is excreted in a concentrated fluid from the nasal passages. Penguins have no external genitalia. THREATS: Penguins living more than 60 degrees south of the equator are protected from hunting by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Penguins are currently threatened by human activity. Threats include oil spills, human exploitation for guano and food, entanglement in fishing gear, human encroachment, over-fishing of food sources and introduced predators such as dogs. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Penguin from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Penguin from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Penguin Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Penguin

Adopt A Penguin Adoption Certificate

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Penguin Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Penguin is from you. WAF's Adopt A Penguin symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt an penguin for yourself or order an Adopt A Penguin as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Penguin Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A PANDA

STATUS: Endangered DESCRIPTION: Pandas are famous for their black and white markings. The legs, shoulders, ears and oval patches around the eyes are black, and the rest of the coat is white. Good tree climbers, pandas can also swim to escape predators. Pandas use an enlarged wrist bone that looks like a thumb to grasp objects like bamboo. SIZE: Pandas weigh an average of 200 to 300 pounds and reach six feet in length. POPULATION: Only 1,000 pandas exist in the wild and 60 in zoos. LIFESPAN: The panda’s lifespan in the wild is unknown but in captivity averages more than 20 years. RANGE: The shrinking range of the panda is limited to parts of Szechuan, Shensi and Kansu provinces in central and western China. HABITAT: The panda lives in thick bamboo and coniferous forests (evergreens with seed cones) at 8,500 to 11,500 feet elevation. FOOD: Pandas feed mostly on bamboo, a tall woody plant full of fiber. The panda’s digestive system does not absorb the fiber, so it must eat a lot. Pandas also eat flowers, vines, tufted grasses, green corn, honey and rodents. BEHAVIOR: These solitary animals spend most of their days feeding. Although they live in cold forests, pandas do not hibernate. They move to lower elevations during winter to keep warm and to higher elevations in summer to stay cool. They do not have permanent homes but sleep at the bottom of trees and under stumps and rock ledges. OFFSPRING: After a gestation period of 125 to 150 days, a mother panda gives birth to one or two young, but only one survives. Eyes open at six to eight weeks, and the cub starts to move around at three months. Weaned at six months, the cub becomes independent after a year. GENERAL INFORMATION: The giant panda lives in mountainous regions, such as Sichuan and Tibet. Since the latter half of the 20th century, the panda has become an informal national emblem for China, and its image is found on many Chinese gold coins. Despite being taxonomically a carnivore, the panda has a diet that is overwhelmingly herbivorous. The giant panda eats shoots and leaves, living almost entirely on bamboo. Pandas are also known to eat eggs, the occasional fish, and some insects along with their bamboo diet. These are necessary sources of protein. Like other subtropical mammals, the giant panda does not hibernate. For many decades the precise taxonomic classification of the panda was under debate as both the giant panda and the distantly related red panda share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. However, genetic testing seems to have revealed that giant pandas are true bears and part of the Ursidae family. Its closest bear relative is the Spectacled Bear of South America. Giant pandas are an endangered species, threatened by continued habitat loss and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity. Poaching is uncommon; killing a panda was punishable in China by death until a 1997 law changed the penalty to 20 years imprisonment. The giant panda has an unusual paw, with a "thumb" and five fingers; the "thumb" is actually a modified sesamoid bone. The giant panda has a short tail, approximately 15 cm long. The giant panda has long been a favorite of the public, at least partly on account of the fact that the species has an appealing baby like cuteness that makes it seem to resemble a living teddy bear. The fact that it is usually depicted reclining peacefully eating bamboo, as opposed to hunting, also adds to its image of innocence. Though the giant panda is often assumed docile because of their cuteness, they have been known to attack humans, usually assumed to be out of irritation rather than predatory behavior. Giant pandas can usually live to be 20 30 years old. THREATS: Habitat loss to increasing human populations; poaching; periodic bamboo die-offs. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Panda from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Panda from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Panda Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Panda

Adopt A Panda Adoption Certificate

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Panda Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Panda is from you. WAF's Adopt A Panda symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a panda for yourself or order an Adopt A Panda as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Panda Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A GIRAFFE STATUS: Vulnerable. DESCRIPTION: Giraffes are one of the world's tallest mammals. They are well known for their long necks, long legs, and spotted patterns. Giraffes have small "horns" or knobs on top of their heads that grow to be about five inches long. These knobs are used to protect the head in fights. SIZE: Male giraffes are larger than females. Males weigh between 2,400 and 3,000 pounds and stand up to 19 feet tall. Female giraffes weigh between 1,600 and 2,600 pounds and grow to be 16 feet tall. POPULATION: Giraffe populations are relatively stable. LIFESPAN: Healthy giraffes live about 25 years in the wild. RANGE: Giraffes can be found in central, eastern and southern Africa. HABITAT: Giraffes live in the savannas of Africa, where they roam freely among the tall trees, arid land, dense forests and open plains. FOOD: Their long necks help giraffes eat leaves from tall trees, typically acacia trees. If they need to, giraffes can go for several days without water. Instead of drinking, giraffes stay hydrated by the moisture from leaves. BEHAVIOR: Giraffes are non-territorial, social animals. They travel in large herds that are not organized in any way. Herds may consist of any combination of sexes or ages. OFFSPRING: Female giraffes typically give birth to one calf after a fifteen-month gestation period. During the first week of its life, the mother carefully guards her calf. Young giraffes are very vulnerable and cannot defend themselves. While mothers feed, the young are kept in small nursery groups. CHARACTERISTICS: Giraffes have spots covering their entire bodies, except their underbellies, with each giraffe having a unique pattern of spots. Giraffes have long necks, which they use to browse the leaves of trees. They also have slightly elongated forelegs, about 10% longer than their hind legs. Like nearly all mammals, a giraffe has seven neck vertebrae, which are extremely elongated. These bones produce bud like horns called ossicorns. Modifications to the giraffe's structure have evolved, particularly to the circulatory system. A giraffe's heart, which can weigh up to 10 kg (24 lb), has to generate around double the normal blood pressure for a large mammal in order to maintain blood flow to the brain against gravity. In the upper neck, a complex pressure regulation system called the rete mirabile prevents excess blood flow to the brain when the giraffe lowers its head to drink. Conversely, the blood vessels in the lower legs are under great pressure (because of the weight of fluid pressing down on them). In other animals such pressure would force the blood out through the capillary walls; giraffes, however, have a very tight sheath of thick skin over their lower limbs which maintains high extravascular pressure in exactly the same way as a pilot's g suit. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine to detect estrus in a multi step process known as the Flehmen response. Giraffe gestation lasts between 14 and 15 months, after which a single calf is born. The mother gives birth standing up and the embryonic sack actually bursts when the baby falls to the ground. Newborn giraffes are about 1.8 meters tall. Within a few hours of being born, calves can run around and are indistinguishable from a week old calf; however, for the first two weeks, they spend most of their time lying down, guarded by the mother. While adult giraffes are too large to be attacked by most predators, the young can fall prey to lions, leopards, hyenas, and African Wild Dogs. It has been speculated that their characteristic spotted pattern provides a certain degree of camouflage. Only 25 to 50% of giraffe calves reach adulthood; the life expectancy is between 20 and 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity. The giraffe browses on the twigs of trees, preferring plants of the Mimosa genus; but it appears that it can, without inconvenience, live on other vegetable food. A giraffe can eat 63 kg (140 lb) of leaves and twigs daily. The pace of the giraffe is an amble, though when pursued it can run extremely fast. It cannot sustain a lengthened chase. Its leg length compels an unusual gait with the left legs moving together followed by right (similar to pacing) at low speed, and the back legs crossing outside the front at high speed. The giraffe defends itself against threats by kicking with great force. A single well placed kick of an adult giraffe can shatter a lion's skull or break its spine. The giraffe has one of the shortest sleep requirements of any mammal, which is between 20 minutes and two hours in a 24 hour period. A giraffe will clean off any bugs that appear on its face with its extremely long tongue (about 18 inches). The tongue is tough on account of the giraffe's diet, which includes thorns from the tree it is making a meal of. In Southern Africa, giraffes are partial to all acacias — especially Acacia erioloba — and possess a specially adapted tongue and lips that appear to be immune to the vicious thorns. Giraffes are thought to be mute. However, recent research has shown evidence that the animal communicates at an infrasound level. THREATS: Giraffes are hunted for their meat, coat and tails. The tail is prized for good luck bracelets, fly whisks and string for sewing beads. The coat is used for shield coverings. Habitat destruction and fragmentation are also threats to giraffe populations. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Giraffe from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Giraffe from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Giraffe Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Giraffe

Adopt A Giraffe Adoption Certificate

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Giraffe Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Giraffe is from you. WAF's Adopt A Giraffe symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a giraffe for yourself or order an Adopt A Giraffe as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Giraffe Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

MANATEE ADOPTION

STATUS: Endangered DESCRIPTION: Manatees range in color from gray to brown. They use their two small front flippers to crawl along ocean or river bottoms. Their flat, horizontal tails are pumped up and down to move them along. Despite their small eyes and lack of outer ears, manatees are thought to see and hear quite well. One of the closest surviving relatives of the manatee is the elephant. Manatees have many anatomical parallels with elephants, including a long, flexible nose or trunk, whiskers, and toenails. SIZE: The average adult manatee weighs 1,500 to 1,800 pounds and measures ten to 12 feet in length. POPULATION: The largest population of manatees is found in Florida, where 5,067 individuals now live. LIFESPAN: Manatees are thought to live 50 to 60 years in the wild. RANGE: Manatees take up residence primarily in Florida’s coastal waters during winter and migrate either as far north as the Carolinas or as far west as Louisiana during the summer months. Manatees inhabit the shallow, marshy coastal areas and rivers of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico (T. manatus, West Indian Manatee), the Amazon Basin (T. inunguis, Amazonian Manatee), and West Africa (T. senegalensis, West African Manatee). West Indian Manatees enjoy warmer waters and are known to congregate in shallow waters, and frequently migrate through brackish water estuaries to freshwater springs. Their natural source for warmth during winter is warm-spring fed rivers. HABITAT: Manatees can be found in the warm waters of shallow rivers, bays, estuaries and coastal waters. Rarely do individuals venture into waters that are below 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Manatees often congregate near power plants, which warm the waters. Some have become reliant on this source of unnatural heat and have ceased migrating to warmer waters. FOOD: Manatees are herbivores and eat marine and freshwater plants. BEHAVIOR: Well known for their gentle, slow-moving nature, manatees have also been known to body surf or barrel roll when playing. Normally they rest and feed often. Manatees communicate by squealing under water to demonstrate fear, stress or excitement. They emit a wide range of sounds used in communication, especially between cows and their calves. Adults communicate to maintain contact and during sexual and play behaviors. Taste and smell, in addition to sight, sound, and touch, may also be forms of communication. Manatees are capable of understanding discrimination tasks, and show signs of complex associated learning and advanced long term memory. They demonstrate complex discrimination and task-learning similar to dolphins and pinnipeds in acoustic and visual studies. OFFSPRING: After a one-year gestation period, calves are born weighing between 60 and 70 pounds and measuring about three to four feet. THREATS: Most manatees have a pattern of scars on their backs or tails from collisions with boats. Scientists use these patterns to identify individuals. But these collisions can be fatal for the manatee. Besides boating accidents, manatees have been found crushed or drowned in flood-control gates and also suffer from pollution and habitat loss. All three species of manatee are listed by the IUCN as Vulnerable to extinction. Although it does not have any natural predators, human expansion has reduced its natural habitat in the coastal marsh areas and many manatees are injured or killed by collisions with powerboats. Manatees occasionally ingest fishing gear (hooks, metal weights, etc.) during feeding. These foreign materials do not seem to harm manatees, except for monofilament line or string. This can get clogged in the animal's digestive system and slowly kill the animal. They can also be crushed in water control structures (navigation locks, flood gates, etc.), drown in pipes and culverts, and are occasionally killed from entanglement in fishing gear, primarily crab pot float lines. On June 8, 2006, the manatee was removed from Florida's endangered species list, and now has a "threatened" status in that state. While none of the state laws protecting manatees have changed, many wildlife conservationists are disappointed with the removal decision. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Manatee Adoption Kit by World Animal Foundation Purchase a Manatee Adoption Kit from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Manatee Adoption Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Manatee

Manatee Adoption Kit Adoption Certificate

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Manatee Adoption Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Manatee Adoption Kit is from you. WAF's Manatee Adoption Kit symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Purchase a Manatee Adoption Kit for yourself or order a Manatee Adoption Kit as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - purchase a Manatee Adoption Kit Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT AN ORCA STATUS: Vulnerable. DESCRIPTION: The orca, or "killer whale”, is the largest member of the dolphin family. Orcas have long, rounded bodies with large dorsal fins at the middle of their backs. Their black bodies are marked with white patches on the underside and near the eyes. SIZE: The average male orca grows to 23 feet long and weighs 7 to 10 tons. Females average 21 feet long and weigh 4 to 6 tons. POPULATION: The worldwide population of orcas is unknown. LIFESPAN: Orcas live 30 to 50 years in the wild. RANGE: Found in all oceans of the world, orcas are most common in the Arctic and Antarctic and are often spotted off the west coast of the United States and Canada. HABITAT: Orcas are found in both coastal waters and open ocean. FOOD: Like dolphins, orcas use echolocation - bouncing sound off of objects to determine their location - to hunt and use a series of high-pitched clicks to stun prey. Orcas feed on fish, squid, birds, and marine mammals. Orca pods often work together to catch a meal. Pods sometimes will force many fish into one area and take turns feeding or will beach (slide out of the water onto the shore) themselves to scare seals or penguins into the water where other whales are waiting to feed. BEHAVIOR: Orcas are highly social animals that travel in groups called pods. Pods usually consist of 5 to 30 whales, although some pods may combine to form a group of 100 or more. Orcas establish social hierarchies, and pods are lead by females. The animals are thought to have a complex form of communication with different dialects (slightly different language) from one pod to another. OFFSPRING: Orca gestation is 13 to 16 months. A calf is born in autumn weighing almost 400 pounds and measuring up to 7 feet in length. A calf will remain with its mother for at least two years. THREATS: Recent studies have found that orcas are among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world. Pollution and chemical contamination make orcas more susceptible to disease and likely cause reproductive difficulties. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt An Orca from World Animal Foundation Adopt An Orca from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt An Orca Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Orca

Adopt An Orca Adoption Certificate

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt An Orca Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt An Orca is from you. WAF's Adopt An Orca symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt an orca for yourself or order an Adopt An Orca as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt An Orca Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A LEOPARD

STATUS: Endangered in Asia and parts of Africa. Threatened south of, and including, Gabon, Congo, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya in Africa. DESCRIPTION: Leopards are medium-sized cats found in a range of colors from pale yellow to gray to chestnut. A leopard’s shoulders, upper arms, back and haunches are marked with dark spots in a rosette pattern, while the head, chest and throat are marked with small black spots. Large black spots cover the leopard’s white belly. Black, or melanistic, leopards are common, especially in dense forests. SIZE: Leopards are 1.5 to 2.6 feet tall at the shoulder. They are three to six feet long, with a tail that is two to 3.5 feet long. Males weigh between 82 and 200 pounds, females are slightly smaller. LIFESPAN: Leopards live for up to 20 years. RANGE: Leopards are found throughout most of Africa and Asia from the middle east to the Soviet Union, Korea, China, India, and Malaysia. HABITAT: Leopards are found in a variety of habitats including forests, mountains, grassland and deserts. FOOD: Leopards eat small hoofstock such as gazelle, impala, deer and wildebeast. On occasion, they may also hunt monkeys, rodents and birds. BEHAVIOR: Leopards are nocturnal animals, meaning they are active at night. During the day, they rest in thick brush or in trees. Leopards are solitary, preferring to live alone. They are very agile and good swimmers. They are able to leap more than 20 feet. OFFSPRING: Following a 90 to 105 day gestation, one to six kittens are born. The average litter size is two or three. Kittens weigh about one pound when they are born. They will stay with their mother for 18 to 24 months. DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: The big cats, especially the spotted cats, are easy to confuse for those who see them in captivity or in photographs. The leopard is closely related to, and appears very similar to, the jaguar; it is less often confused with the cheetah. The ranges, habitats, and activities of the three cats make them easy to distinguish in the wild. Since wild leopards live only in Africa and Asia, while wild jaguars live only in the Americas, there is no possibility of confusing them in the wild. There are also visual markings that set them apart. Leopards do not have the spots within the rosettes that jaguars always have, and the jaguar's spots are larger than the leopard's. The Amur leopard and the North Chinese leopard are occasional exceptions. The leopard is smaller and less stocky than the jaguar, although it is more heavyset than the cheetah. Besides appearance, the leopard and jaguar have similar behavior patterns. Jaguars can adapt to a range of habitats from rainforest to ranchlands, while leopards are even more adaptable ranging in from deserts and mountains, savanna and woodlands. The cheetah, although its range overlaps extensively with that of the leopard, is easily distinguished. The leopard is heavier, stockier, and has a larger head in proportion to the body. The cheetah tends to run rather fast and goes much more quickly than the leopard. The cheetah also has dark 'teardrop' like markings running down the sides of its face, whereas the leopard does not. Cheetahs are usually diurnal, while leopards are more active at night (nocturnal); cheetahs are also exclusively terrestrial (except when young), while leopards often climb trees. DISTRIBUTION AND CONSERVATION: Prior to the human induced changes of the last few hundred years, Leopards were the most widely distributed of all felids other than the domestic cat: they were found through most of Africa (with the exception of the Sahara Desert), as well as parts of Asia Minor. They are still found in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, China, Siberia, much of mainland South East Asia, and the islands of Java and Sri Lanka. The leopard is doing surprisingly well for a large predator. It is estimated that there are as many as 500,000 leopards worldwide. But like many other big cats, leopards are increasingly under threat of habitat loss and are facing increased hunting pressure. Because of their stealthy habits and camouflage, they can go undetected even in close proximity to human settlements. Despite the leopard's abilities, it is no match for habitat destruction and poachers, and several subspecies are endangered, namely, the Amur, Anatolian, Barbary, North Chinese, and South Arabian leopards. THREATS: Fur trade, human encroachment. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Leopard from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Leopard from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Leopard Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Leopard

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Leopard Adoption Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Leopard is from you. WAF's Adopt A Leopard symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a leopard for yourself or order an Adopt A Leopard as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Leopard Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A BOBCAT STATUS: Vulnerable. DESCRIPTION: Named for their short, bobbed tail, bobcats are medium-sized cats, slightly smaller and similar in appearance to their cousin the lynx. Their coat varies in color from shades of buff or brown fur with spotted or lined markings in dark brown or black. SIZE: On average, bobcats measure 17 to 23 inches in height and 25 to 41 inches in length. Males weigh approximately 16 to 28 pounds, while females typically weigh 10 to 18 pounds. The bobcat is approximately two feet tall. POPULATION: Approximately 725,000 to 1,020,000 bobcats remain in the wild. LIFESPAN: Bobcats live an average of 12 to 13 years. RANGE: Bobcats can be found from southern Canada to northern Mexico, although they have been extirpated (can no longer be found) in some midwestern and eastern states in the United States. HABITAT: Bobcat habitat varies widely from forests and mountainous areas to semideserts and brush land. A habitat dense with vegetation and lots of prey is ideal. Although adapted to a variety of habitats across the country, they do not tolerate the deep snows. Bobcats move about their home ranges most actively in the hours near dawn and dusk, hunting small mammals. They seek cover in conifer stands and on rocky ledges. Unlike the larger Canada Lynx, which they resemble, Bobcats are often highly adaptable to human caused changes in environmental conditions; some biologists believe that there are more bobcats in the United States today than in colonial times. They have vanished from parts of the midwest where most suitable habitat has been replaced by cultivated fields. FOOD: While rabbits are the staple of their diet, bobcats are also known to eat rodents, birds, bats and even adult deer (usually killed during the winter months). BEHAVIOR: Bobcats are excellent hunters, stalking prey with stealth and patience, then capturing their meal with one great leap. They are typically solitary and territorial animals. Females never share territory with each other, however, male territories tend to overlap. Territories are established with scent marking and range approximately 25 to 30 square miles for males and about five square miles for females. OFFSPRING: Mating usually occurs in late winter. Cubs are usually born in early spring after a 50 to 70 day gestation period. Litter sizes vary from one to six cubs. Cubs stay with their mother for a year. THREATS: In Mexico, bobcats are persecuted as a sheep predator and are frequently killed by farmers. Bobcats are hunted and inhumanely trapped for their fur throughout much of their range. Between 1991 to 1992, about 22,000 pelts were sold and traded. CAPTIVITY: Even under the best of circumstances, captivity can be hell for animals meant to roam free. Kept in small, barren cages, forced to sleep on concrete slabs, and imprisoned behind iron bars, performing animals often suffer from malnutrition, loneliness, the denial of all normal pleasures and behaviors, loss of freedom and independence, even lack of veterinary care, and filthy quarters. Attracting customers is the first consideration and the animals' welfare is often the last. Even when the mere display of the animals themselves is the "draw," the animals rarely receive proper care--and almost never the socialization and stimulation they crave. Confined to tiny cages and gawked at by crowds, animals in exhibits and acts endure constant stress. They may suffer from temperature extremes and irregular feeding and watering. Without exercise, they become listless, their immune systems are weakened, and they become prone to sickness; many resort to self-mutilation in reaction to stress or boredom. Mental illness is rampant among confined animals. Torn from their families and deprived of all dignity, every part of their lives is controlled by their captors. While zoos and aquariums may appear to be educational and conservation-oriented, most are designed with the needs and desires of the visitors in mind, not the needs of the animals. Many animals in zoos and aquariums exhibit abnormal behavior as a result of being deprived of their natural environments and social structures. Some zoos and aquariums do rescue some animals and work to save endangered species, but most animals in zoos were either captured from the wild or bred in captivity for the purpose of public display, not species protection. The vast majority of captive-bred animals will never be returned to the wild. When the facility breeds too many animals they become "surplus" and often are sold to laboratories, traveling shows, shooting ranches, or to private individuals who may be unqualified to care for them. PROTECTION: *CITES, Appendix II *Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international treaty with more than 144 member countries. Appendix I listed species cannot be traded commercially. Appendix II listed species can be traded commercially only if it does not harm their survival. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Bobcat from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Bobcat from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Bobcat Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Bobcat

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Bobcat Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Bobcat is from you. WAF's Adopt A Bobcat symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a bobcat for yourself or order an Adopt A Bobcat as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Bobcat Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A GRIZZLY BEAR

STATUS: In 1975, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the brown (grizzly) bear as a threatened species in the Lower 48 states, under the Endangered Species Act, meaning it is considered likely to become endangered. In Alaska, where there are estimated to be over 30,000 brown bears, they are classified as a game animal with regionally established regulations. DESCRIPTION: The brown bear (known as the grizzly in the Lower 48 states) is a large predator distinguished from black bears by a distinctive hump on the shoulders, a dished profile to the face, and long claws about the length of a human finger. Coloration is usually darkish brown but can vary from very light cream to black. The long guard hairs on their back and shoulders often have white tips and give the bears a "grizzled" appearance, hence the name "grizzly." SIZE: Brown bears vary greatly in size. Adult males can weigh from 300 to 850 pounds while females weigh in between 200 and 450 pounds. The largest brown bears are found along the coast of Alaska and British Columbia, and islands such as Kodiak and Admiralty Islands. Here, because of a consistent diet of high protein salmon, males average over 700 pounds and females average about 450 pounds. European brown bears and brown bears from the interior of North America average about two-thirds the size of these large coastal brown bears. Despite this large size, brown bears are extremely agile and fast, reaching speeds of 35 to 40 mph. HABITAT: Brown bears are found in a variety of habitats, from dense forests, to subalpine meadows and arctic tundra. The brown bear is thought to have adapted to the life of a plains or steppe animal and was once common on the Great Plains of North America. Human encroachment has forced the remaining brown bear populations to select rugged mountains and remote forests that are undisturbed by humans. RANGE: Brown bears are found in North America, eastern and western Europe, northern Asia and in Japan. In North America, brown bears are found in western Canada, Alaska, and in the states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Brown bears have the widest distribution of any bear species and occupy a wide range of habitats. Historically, they could be found from Alaksa to Mexico, California to Ohio. POPULATION: In the Lower 48 states there are 800 - 1,020 brown bears surviving. Of these, about 350 live in northwestern Montana, 350-400 live in or around Yellowstone National Park, about 30 in the Selkirk Mountains in northern Idaho/northeast Washington, about 30 live in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem in northern Idaho/western Montana, and perhaps 20 live in the North Cascades of upper Washington State. In Alaska, there are about 30,000. OFFSPRING: Females reach sexual maturity at 4 to 7 years old and breed in early May through mid-July. Bears experience "delayed implantation" so that the fertilized egg does not begin to develop until November, enabling the young to be born in January or February while the mothers are hibernating in a den. Cubs are about 1 - 1½ pounds when born and litter sizes range from 1 - 3, but two is most common. Cubs will remain with their mothers for at least 2 - 4 years, and females won’t breed again while in the company of their young. Thus, the breeding interval is three or more years between successive litters. FOOD: Brown bears are omnivores and will eat both vegetation and animals. Grasses, sedges, roots, berries, insects, fish, carrion and small and large mammals are all part of a bear's diet. In some areas they have become significant predators of large hoofed mammals such as moose, caribou and elk. In other areas a large, consistent supply of food like salmon have led to behavioral changes that allow large congregations of brown bears to share an abundant resource. The diet of brown bears varies depending on what foods are available in that particular season or habitat. BEHAVIOR: Bears live solitary lives except during breeding, cub rearing, and in those areas with a super-abundant food supply such as salmon streams. Brown bears hibernate during the winter for 5-8 months, depending on the location, and usually dig their dens on north-facing slopes to ensure good snow cover. Brown bears need to eat a lot in the summer and fall in order to build up sufficient fat reserves for surviving the denning period. This is particularly true for pregnant females who give birth to one-pound cubs and then nurse them to about 20 pounds before emerging from the den in April - May. All the time without eating or drinking a thing! These bears will defend their territories, and mothers are known for their ferocity in defending their cubs. LONGEVITY: Brown bears can live up to 30 years in the wild, though 20 - 25 is normal. THREATS: Most of the threats to the survival of brown bears are associated with degradation of habitat due to development, logging, road-building and energy and mineral exploration. Habitat destruction in valley bottoms and riparian areas is particularly harmful to grizzlies because they use these as "corridors" to travel from one area to another. Another major threat to the brown bear is human-caused mortality. Some brown bears are killed by hunters who mistake them for black bears, a legal game species. Other bears become habituated to humans because of what biologists call "attractants," which include garbage, pet foods, livestock carcasses, and improper camping practices. This can eventually lead to conflicts between people and bears - not only in populated areas of the grizzly's range, but also in back-country recreation sites and removal of the bear. And lastly, illegal killing (poaching) of bears remains another factor leading to their decline. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Grizzly Bear from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Grizzly Bear from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Grizzly Bear Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Grizzly Bear

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Grizzly Bear Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Grizzly Bear is from you. WAF's Adopt A Grizzly Bear symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a grizzly bear for yourself or order an Adopt A Grizzly Bear as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Grizzly Bear Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A GORILLA STATUS: Endangered. DESCRIPTION: Of the three subspecies of gorilla, the mountain gorilla is the largest and rarest. Remarkably strong, the mountain gorilla has a short trunk and a broad chest and shoulders. Males develop a streak of silver hair on their backs when they mature and are called "silverbacks." SIZE: Male mountain gorillas reach an average of 6 feet tall (when standing upright) and weigh 400 to 500 pounds, making them the largest of the great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas). Females are smaller, standing an average of 4 to 5 feet tall and weighing 150 to 200 pounds. POPULATION: Fewer than 650 mountain gorillas survive today in two geographically isolated populations. Approximately 320 gorillas inhabit the Virunga volcanoes region of Rwanda, Zaire, and Uganda, while the remaining number inhabits Uganda's Bwindi National Park. LIFESPAN: Mountain gorillas live up to 53 years in captivity. RANGE: Mountain gorillas can be found only in the forest ecosystems of Rwanda, Zaire, and Uganda. HABITAT: The dense, forest ecosystems of the mountains of East Africa are the last remaining habitat of the mountain gorilla. FOOD: Mountain gorillas eat large amounts of vegetation and spend about 30 percent of each day foraging for food. They consume roots, leaves, stems of herbs, vines, bark from trees, shrub-sized plants, and bamboo shoots. BEHAVIOR: Mountain gorillas are shy, retiring animals. They live in social groups of 2 to 35 individuals. An adult male silverback is the leader and protector of his band, which consists of females and offspring. Silverbacks will charge anything that threatens them or their group and are known for their chest beating displays when in danger. A silverback is an adult male gorilla, typically more than 12 years of age and named for the distinctive patch of silver hair on his back. A silverback gorilla has large canines that come with maturity. Blackbacks are sexually mature males of up to 11 years of age. Silverbacks are the strong, dominant troop leaders. Each typically leads a troop of 5 to 30 gorillas and is the center of the troop's attention, making all the decisions, mediating conflicts, determining the movements of the group, leading the others to feeding sites and taking responsibility for the safety and well being of the troop. Males will slowly begin to leave their original troop when they are about 11 years old, travelling alone or with a group of other males for 2–5 years before being able to attract females to form a new group and start breeding. While infant gorillas normally stay with their mother for 3–4 years, silverbacks will care for weaned young orphans. If challenged by a younger or even by an outsider male, a silverback will scream, beat his chest, break branches, bare his teeth, then charge forward. Sometimes a younger male in the group can take over leadership from an old male. If the leader is killed by disease, accident, fighting or poachers, the group will split up, as animals disperse to look for a new protective male. Very occasionally, a group might be taken over in its entirety by another male. There is a strong risk that the new male may kill the infants of the dead silverback. OFFSPRING: Females reach breeding age at about 10 years old. They typically bear young every four to five years, giving birth after a gestation period of eight to nine months. Young gorillas cling to their mother's chests until they are old enough to ride on her back. A young gorilla remains with its mother until 5 years of age. INTELLIGENCE: Gorillas are closely related to humans and are considered highly intelligent. A few individuals in captivity, such as Koko, have been taught a subset of sign language. Gorillas are now known to use tools in the wild. A female gorilla in the Nouabalé Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo was recorded using a stick as if to gauge the depth of water while crossing a swamp. A second female was seen using a tree stump as a bridge and also as a support while fishing in the swamp. This means that all of the great apes are now known to use tools. In September 2005, a two and a half year old gorilla in the Republic of Congo was discovered using rocks to smash open palm nuts. While this was the first such observation for a gorilla, over forty years previously chimpanzees had been seen using tools in the wild, famously 'fishing' for termites. It is a common tale among native peoples that gorillas have used rocks and sticks to thwart predators, even rebuking large mammals. Great apes are endowed with a semi precision grip, and certainly have been able to use both simple tools and even weapons, by improvising a club from a convenient fallen branch. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Gorilla from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Gorilla from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Gorilla Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Gorilla

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Gorilla Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Gorilla is from you. WAF's Adopt A Gorilla symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a gorilla for yourself or order an Adopt A Gorilla as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Gorilla Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A LION

STATUS: Although the population of lions is declining, they are not currently listed as endangered or threatened. (The Asiatic lion is endangered.) DESCRIPTION: Renowned for their majesty and nicknamed the King of the Jungle, lions possess both beauty and strength. Males are distinguishable by their manes which protect them while fighting. Lions vary in color but are typically a light, yellowish-brown. SIZE: Males stand at a shoulder height of about 4 feet and reach about 5 ½ to 8 feet in length. Their tails average a length of 3 to 3 ½ feet, and they can weigh as much as 330 to 550 pounds. Females are smaller than males. POPULATION: Since the early 1950s, the lion population in Africa has been reduced by half. Today fewer than 21,000 remain in all of Africa. LIFESPAN: 15 years in the wild, 24 years in captivity. RANGE: The lion is found throughout the south Sahara desert and in parts of southern and eastern Africa. HABITAT: The African lion inhabits grassy plains, savannahs, open woodlands and scrub country. FOOD: Lions feed upon a wide array of animals, including wildebeest, impala, zebra, giraffe, buffalo and wild hogs. They will also feed on smaller animals such as hares, birds and reptiles. BEHAVIOR: The only social member of the cat (Felidae) family, lions live in large groups called "prides," consisting of about 15 lions. Related females and their young make up the majority of the pride. A single male, or sometimes a small group of two to three males, will join a pride for an indefinite period, usually about three years or until another group of males takes over. Females do almost all of the hunting. They are mainly nocturnal and work in teams to stalk and ambush prey. A lion can run for short distances at 50 miles per hour and leap as far as 36 feet. They are also territorial, males roar and use scent markings to establish their domain. OFFSPRING: A female gives birth to litters averaging three to four cubs. If the entire litter dies, she will mate again within a few days. They begin hunting at 11 months and remain with their mother for at least two years. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Lion from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Lion from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Lion Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Lion

Adopt A Lion Adoption Certificate

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Lion Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Lion is from you. WAF's Adopt A Lion symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a lion for yourself or order an Adopt A Lion as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Lion Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT AN ORANGUTAN STATUS: Endangered. DESCRIPTION: Orangutans have thin, shaggy, reddish-brown hair. They have long, powerful arms and strong hands that they can use to manipulate tools. Orangutans have the ability to make 13 to15 different types of vocalizations. SIZE: Most orangutans are four to five feet long, some can reach a length of six feet. Adult males weigh between 100 and 200 pounds and adult females weigh between 65 and 100 pounds. Orangutans have an arm spread of about five feet. POPULATION: An estimated 19,000 to 25,000 orangutans live in the wild. Another 900 live in captivity. LIFESPAN: In the wild, orangutans live for about 35 to 40 years. RANGE: Orangutans are only found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo in Southeast Asia. HABITAT: Orangutans are arboreal creatures, which means they spend most of their lives slowly walking, swinging and climbing through dense rain forests. FOOD: Orangutans feed mainly on fruits, especially wild figs. They also eat other kinds of vegetation, insects, small vertebrates and birds eggs. BEHAVIOR: Orangutans are solitary creatures. Adult males live primarily alone and only come together with females to mate. Adult females live with their young. Occasionally, adults will live with other adults for short periods in small temporary groups. Orangutans spend most of their lives in a "home range" of 0.4 to 3.7 square miles. Females have a smaller home range than males. Sometimes the home ranges of individual orangutans overlap. OFFSPRING: Females are able to give birth after age seven, but in the wild they generally do not mate until age 12. They give birth to one young at a time, which clings to its mother’s stomach until it is about a year old. When an orangutan reaches adolescence at about four or five years, it becomes more independent but may seek protection from its mother until it reaches seven to eight years. THREATS: The orangutan’s most serious threat is the destruction of forest habitat from excessive logging. Female orangutans are also killed and their young are taken and illegally placed in circuses and zoos. Orangutans are highly endangered in the wild. Orangutan habitat destruction due to logging, mining and forest fires has been increasing rapidly in the last decade. Much of this activity is illegal, occurring in national parks that are officially off limits to loggers, miners and plantation development. There is also a major problem with the illegal trapping of baby orangutans for sale into the pet trade; the trappers usually kill the mother to steal the baby. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt An Orangutan from World Animal Foundation Adopt An Orangutan from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt An Orangutan Kit comes in a deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Orangutan

Adopt An Orangutan Adoption Certificate

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt An Orangutan Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt An Orangutan is from you. WAF's Adopt An Orangutan symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt an orangutan for yourself or order an Adopt An Orangutan as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt An Orangutan Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT AN ELEPHANT STATUS: Threatened DESCRIPTION: The African elephant is the largest land mammal on Earth and perhaps one of the most intelligent. The trunk of the African elephant has two finger-like structures at its tip that allow the animal to perform both delicate and powerful movements. Its remarkable tusks first appear when the animal is two years of age and continue to grow throughout life. Elephants use tusks for peeling bark off trees, digging for roots, herding young, “drilling” for water and sometimes as a weapon. SIZE: Males reach a length of 18 to 21 feet and weigh up to 13,200 pounds. Females are about two feet shorter and weigh half as much. POPULATION: 400,000 to 600,000 (down from perhaps 10 million early in this century.) LIFESPAN: Elephants can live 50 to 60 years. RANGE: Throughout Africa south of the Sahara desert. HABITAT: Elephants are capable of surviving in nearly any habitat that has adequate quantities of food and water. FOOD: Elephants spend about 16 hours a day eating. Their diet is varied and includes grass, leaves, twigs, bark and fruit. BEHAVIOR: Elephants form deep family bonds and live in tight social units. A family is led by an older matriarch and typically includes three or four of her offspring and their young. Males leave the family unit between the ages of 12 and 15 and may lead solitary adult lives. Elephants live in a very structured social order. The social lives of male and female elephants are very different. The females spend their entire lives in tightly knit family groups made up of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. These groups are led by the eldest female, or matriarch. Adult males, on the other hand, live mostly solitary lives. The social circle of the female elephant does not end with the small family unit. In addition to encountering the local males that live on the fringes of one or more groups, the female's life also involves interaction with other families, clans, and subpopulations. Most immediate family groups range from five to fifteen adults, as well as a number of immature males and females. When a group gets too big, a few of the elder daughters will break off and form their own small group. They remain very aware of which local herds are relatives and which are not. The life of the adult male is very different. As he gets older, he begins to spend more time at the edge of the herd, gradually going off on his own for hours or days at a time. Eventually, days become weeks, and somewhere around the age of fourteen, the mature male, or bull, sets out from his natal group for good. While males do live primarily solitary lives, they will occasionally form loose associations with other males. These groups are called bachelor herds. The males spend much more time than the females fighting for dominance with each other. Only the most dominant males will be permitted to breed with cycling females. The less dominant ones must wait their turn. It is usually the older bulls, forty to fifty years old, that do most of the breeding. The dominance battles between males can look very fierce, but typically they inflict very little injury. Most of the bouts are in the form of aggressive displays and bluffs. Ordinarily, the smaller, younger, and less confident animal will back off before any real damage can be done. However, during the breeding season, the battles can get extremely aggressive, and the occasional elephant is injured. During this season, known as musth, a bull will fight with almost any other male it encounters, and it will spend most of its time hovering around the female herds, trying to find a receptive mate. OFFSPRING: Females carry their young for almost two years. At birth, the calf weighs about 250 pounds. A cow may give birth every three to four years. Elephant social life, in many ways, revolves around breeding and raising of the calves. A female will usually be ready to breed around the age of thirteen, at which time she will seek out the most fit male to mate with. Elephants have a very long childhood. They are born with fewer survival instincts than many other animals. Instead, they must rely on their elders to teach them the things they need to know. The ability to pass on information and knowledge to their young has always been a major asset in the elephant's struggle to survive. Today, however, the pressures humans have put on the wild elephant populations, from poaching to habitat destruction, mean that the elderly often die at a younger age, leaving fewer teachers for the young. All members of the tightly knit female group participate in the care and protection of the young. Since everyone in the herd is related, there is never a shortage of baby sitters. In fact, a new calf is usually the center of attention for all herd members. All the adults and most of the other young will gather around the newborn, touching and caressing it with their trunks. The baby is born nearly blind and at first relies, almost completely, on its trunk to discover the world around it. After the initial excitement dies down, the mother will usually select several full time baby sitters, or "allomothers", from her group. They walk with the young as the herd travels, helping the calves along if they fall or get stuck in the mud. The more allomothers a baby has, the more free time its mother has to feed herself. THREATS: Habitat loss and the ivory trade are the greatest threats to the elephants’ future. The threat to the African elephant presented by the ivory trade is unique to the species. Another threat to elephant's survival in general is the ongoing cultivation of their habitats with increasing risk of conflicts of interest with human cohabitants. Lacking the massive tusks of its African cousins, the Asian elephant's demise can be attributed mostly to loss of its habitat. Elephants need massive tracts of land because, much like the slash and burn farmers, they are used to crashing through the forest, tearing down trees and shrubs for food and then cycling back later on, when the area has regrown. As forests are reduced to small pockets, elephants become part of the problem, quickly destroying all the vegetation in an area, eliminating all their resources. Larger, long lived, slow breeding animals, like the elephant, are more susceptible to overhunting than other animals. They cannot hide, and it takes many years for an elephant to grow and reproduce. CAPTIVITY: Elephants in captivity lead miserable lives. In stark contrast to their natural tendency to roam several miles each day, they are bound in shackles and chains and forced to perform tasks that are the antithesis of their innate instincts. For a short time, it was illegal to capture a wild elephant for use in a circus or zoo, but the CITES decision in 1997 changed all of that. The training endured by circus animals is almost always based on intimidation; trainers must break the spirit of the animals in order to control them. It is not uncommon for an elephant to be tied down and beaten for several days while being trained to perform. While zoos may appear to be educational and conservation-oriented, most are designed with the needs and desires of the visitors in mind, not the needs of the animals. Many animals in zoos exhibit abnormal behavior as a result of being deprived of their natural environments and social structures. Most animals in zoos were either captured from the wild or bred in captivity for the purpose of public display, not species protection. PROTECTION: *CITES, Appendix I (except in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, where they are listed as Appendix II), African Elephant Conservation Act, Endangered Species Act *Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international treaty with more than 144 member countries. Appendix I listed species cannot be traded commercially. Appendix II listed species can be traded commercially only if trade does not harm their survival. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt An Elephant from World Animal Foundation Adopt An Elephant from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt An Elephant Kit comes in a deluxe WAF folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Elephant

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt An Elephant Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt An Elephant is from you. WAF's Adopt An Elephant symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt an Elephant for yourself or order an Adopt An Elephant as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt An Elephant Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A DOLPHIN STATUS: The Chinese River dolphin and Indus River dolphin are classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. DESCRIPTION: Dolphins belong to the same zoological order as whales. They are part of the family of toothed whales that also includes killer and pilot whales. They are mammals and breathe through a blowhole on the top of their head. Most dolphins have acute eyesight, both in and out of the water, and their sense of hearing is superior to that of humans. Though they have a small ear opening on each side of their head, it is believed that hearing underwater is also, if not exclusively, done with the lower jaw which conducts the sound vibrations to the middle ear via a fat filled cavity in the lower jaw bone. Hearing is also used for echolocation, which is an ability all dolphins have. The dolphin's sense of touch is also well developed. SIZE: The tucuxi is the smallest of the dolphin species. It is about five feet in length and weighs about 100 pounds. The largest dolphin species is the orca. Male orcas are about 18 feet in length and weigh about 19,000 pounds. LIFESPAN: Most species have a long lifespan. Some individuals may have lived for more than 100 years. RANGE: Most species live in tropical and temperate oceans throughout the world. Five species live in rivers. HABITAT: All but five of the 34 dolphin species live in tropical and temperate oceans. Five species live in rivers: baiji (Chinese River dolphin), boto (Amazon River dolphin), franciscana (La Plata River dolphin), Ganges River dolphin and Indus River dolphin. FOOD: Using echolocation to find prey, dolphins eat a variety of food including fish, squid and crustaceans. Dolphins often hunt together, surrounding a school of fish, trapping the fish, and taking turns swimming through the school and catching fish. Dolphins will also follow seabirds, other whales and fishing boats to feed opportunistically on the fish they scare up or discard. BEHAVIOR: Dolphins are well known for their agility and playful behavior, making them a favorite of wildlife watchers. Many species will leap out of the water, spy-hop (rise vertically out of the water to view their surroundings) and follow ships, often synchronizing their movements with one another. Scientists believe that by swimming alongside ships, a practice known as bow-riding, dolphins conserve energy. Dolphins live in social groups of five to several hundred. OFFSPRING: Following a 9.5 to 17 month gestation, a single calf is born. INTELLIGENCE: Dolphins are widely believed to be amongst the most intelligent of all animals. Dolphins often leap above the water surface, sometimes performing acrobatic figures. Scientists aren't quite certain about the purpose of this behavior, but it may be to locate schools of fish by looking at above water signs, like feeding birds. They could also be communicating to other dolphins to join a hunt, attempting to dislodge parasites, or simply doing it for fun. Play is a very important part of dolphins' lives and they can often be observed playing with seaweed or playfighting with other dolphins. They have even been seen harassing other creatures, like seabirds and turtles. Dolphins also seem to enjoy riding waves and are frequently seen 'surfing' coastal swells and the bow waves of boats. They are also famous for their willingness to occasionally approach humans and playfully interact with them in the water. There are many stories of dolphins protecting shipwrecked sailors against sharks by swimming circles around the swimmers. A school of dolphins is also said to have pushed a fishing boat that was returning back out to sea after sensing the underwater disturbances generated by the 2004 Asian Tsunami. Dolphins are social animals, living in pods (also called "schools") of up to a dozen animals. In places with a high abundance of food, schools can join temporarily, forming an aggregation called a superpod; such groupings may exceed 1000 dolphins. The individuals communicate using a variety of clicks, whistles and other vocalizations. They also use ultrasonic sounds for echolocation. Membership in schools is not rigid; interchange is common. However, the animals can establish strong bonds between each other. This leads to them staying with injured or ill fellows for support. Some dolphins teach their offspring to use tools. The animals break off sponges and put them onto their mouths, protecting the delicate body part during their hunt for fish on the seabed. This knowledge of how to use a tool is mostly transferred from mothers to daughters in dolphins, unlike simian primates, where the knowledge is generally passed onto all the offspring, irrespective of sex. The technology to use sponges as mouth protection is not genetically inherited, but a taught cultural behavior. THREATS: Marine pollution, habitat degradation, harvesting, low frequency sonar, entrapment in fishing gear. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Dolphin from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Dolphin from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Dolphin Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Dolphin

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Dolphin Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Dolphin is from you. WAF's Adopt A Dolphin symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a dolphin for yourself or order an Adopt A Dolphin as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Dolphin Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A CHIMPANZEE

STATUS: Endangered DESCRIPTION: Chimpanzee faces are pinkish to black, and the apes' bodies are covered with long black hair. Chimps lack a tail. Their opposable thumbs and toes help them grasp objects easily. Chimpanzees are quadrupedal, which means that they walk on all four limbs, although they can also walk upright (bipedal) for short distances. SIZE: Standing approximately 4 feet high, males weigh between 90 and 120 pounds, while females weigh between 60 and 110 pounds. POPULATION: An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 chimpanzees remain in the wild. LIFESPAN: Chimpanzees rarely live past the age of 50 in the wild, but have been known to reach the age of 60 in captivity. RANGE: Chimpanzees can be found in 21 African countries. HABITAT: Chimps prefer dense tropical rainforests but can also be found in secondary-growth forests, woodlands, bamboo forests, swamps, and even open savannah. FOOD: Chimpanzees are omnivores, meaning they eat a wide variety of foods that includes fruits, nuts, seeds, and insects. Chimps occasionally hunt and eat meat. BEHAVIOR: Chimps live in communities. These communities are composed of family groups of three to six individuals, totaling about 50 animals. Hierarchies are formed by the adult males of the community, which is led by one alpha (the highest) male. Adolescent females may move freely between communities, although territory is strictly patrolled and conflicts can occur between neighbors. OFFSPRING: Most mothers give birth to one young an average of every five to six years in the wild. Young chimps stay with their mothers for up to 10 years. THREATS: Habitat destruction is the greatest threat of the chimpanzee. Large population decreases are also blamed on hunting and commercial exportation. Fewer than 250,000 chimpanzees still exist in western and central Africa. Chimpanzees now occupy only a fraction of their former territory. Chimpanzee habitats, already small and isolated, are being further destroyed by increased commercial and agricultural development. In Africa, both species of chimpanzees--pan paniscus and pan troglodytes--are considered endangered. The U.S. Department of the Interior also lists them as endangered. There are approximately 2,000 captive chimpanzees in the United States. About 300 are in zoos, and the remaining 1,700 were bred for inhumane medical research. Many are the offspring of chimpanzees captured in the wild before 1973, when the United States agreed to abide by an international treaty prohibiting the capture and importation of wild chimpanzees. Chimpanzee meat is no longer exclusively the food of the forest peoples, but is now commercially available in urban areas too. Bushmeat, including chimpanzee flesh, is also eaten by people in logging camps. CITES prohibits chimpanzees caught in the wild being used in circuses, but in countries where CITES has not been ratified or where it cannot be enforced, chimpanzees may be taken from the wild as infants, which often means the killing of the adults in their group. Chimpanzees have been used in brain and skull research and in social deprivation studies. Chimpanzees are now popular subjects for AIDS research, although their immune system does not succumb to the virus. Chimpanzees are also used in painful cancer, hepatitis, and psychological tests, as well as for research into artificial insemination and birth control methods, blood diseases, organ transplants, and experimental surgery. Their use in military experiments is suspected, but such information is kept secret and is hard to verify. Because they are in short supply, captive chimps are often subjected to multiple experiments, each of which can last an average of two to four years. During the late 1980s, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) developed its so-called "National Chimpanzee Management Plan." This plan is, in reality, just a funding mechanism for five breeding colonies to maintain a steady supply of chimpanzees for vivisectors. Current CMP guidelines do not prohibit any potentially painful or psychologically damaging experiment from being performed on chimpanzees, nor do they establish minimum housing standards. The plan has no provision for retiring old or "worn out" chimps, nor does it require that infant chimps be raised by their mothers. Two-thirds of the chimps raised under the CMP are released to research projects. The rest are used for breeding. The National Institutes of Health is now considering giving $3.3 million to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York to breed chimps that would be killed to provide hearts and other organs for human transplants. Each transplanted chimp heart would be used only until a human heart became available. No chimp-to-human heart transplant has yet been successful. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Chimpanzee from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Chimpanzee from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Chimpanzee Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Chimpanzee

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Chimpanzee Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Chimpanzee is from you. WAF's Adopt A Chimpanzee symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a chimpanzee for yourself or order an Adopt A Chimpanzee as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Chimpanzee Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A CHEETAH STATUS: Endangered DESCRIPTION: The fastest land animal in the world, the cheetah is a marvel of evolution. Capable of running up to 70 miles per hour, the cheetah’s slender, long-legged body is built for speed. Its spotted coat, small head and ears, and distinctive "tear stripes" from the corner of the eyes down the sides of the nose make the cheetah highly recognizable among the large cats of Africa. SIZE: The cheetah is smaller than other big cats, measuring 44 to 53 inches long with a tail length of 26 to 33 inches. Cheetahs usually weigh 110 to 140 pounds. POPULATION: An estimated 9,000 to 12,000 cheetahs remain in the wild. LIFESPAN: Cheetahs live an average of 10 to 12 years. RANGE: Once found throughout Africa and Asia, cheetahs are now confined to parts of eastern and southwestern Africa. HABITAT: Cheetahs thrive in areas with vast expanses of land where prey is abundant. In Namibia cheetahs have been found in a variety of habitats, including grasslands, savannahs, dense vegetation, and mountainous terrain. Ninety five percent live on commercial farms. Cheetahs are found in the wild primarily in Africa, but in the past their range extended into northern and southern India. Conservationists using camera traps have recently discovered surviving populations in Iran and are taking steps to protect them. In much of their former range they were domesticated by aristocrats and used to hunt antelopes in much the same way as is still done with members of the greyhound group of dogs. Aside from an estimated 200 cheetahs living in Iran (Khorasan Province), the distribution of cheetahs is now limited to Africa. There are 5 subspecies of cheetah in the genus Acinonyx: four in Africa and one in Iran. The endangered subspecies Acinonyx jubatus venaticus lives in Asia (Iran). In 1990, there were reports in the Times of India of a cheetah sighting in eastern India. There is a chance some cheetahs remain in India, though it is doubtful. There have also been reports of Asiatic cheetahs in the Balochistan Province of Pakistan, though these continue to be unverified. The cheetah prefers to live in an open biotope, such as semi desert, prairie, and thick brush. FOOD: Cheetahs rely on a burst of speed to catch such swift prey as gazelles, wildebeest calves, impalas and smaller hoofed animals, knocking their prey to the ground and delivering a suffocating bite to the neck. They must eat quickly to avoid losing their kill to other carnivores. BEHAVIOR: Cheetahs are typically solitary creatures. Females raise their cubs for about a year. Males sometimes live with a small group of brothers from the same litter. Cheetahs hunt in late mornings and early evenings. Chases last from 20 to 60 seconds. Only half are successful. Cheetahs reach sexual maturity in 20 to 24 months. Mating season is throughout the year. The cheetah can live over twenty years, but their life is often short, for they lose their speed with old age. Unlike other felines, the adult females do not have true territories and seem to avoid each other, though some mother/daughter pairs have been known to continue for small periods of time. Cheetahs have a unique, well structured social order. Females live alone except when they are raising cubs. The females raise the cubs on their own. The first 18 months of a cub's life are important; cubs learn many lessons because survival depends on knowing how to hunt wild prey species and avoid other predators such as leopards, lions, hyenas, and baboons. At 18 months, the mother leaves the cubs, which then form a sibling group, that will stay together for another 6 months. At about 2 years, the female siblings leave the group, and the young males remain together for life. Males live alone or in coalitions made up of brothers from the same litter. Some coalitions maintain territories in order to find females with which they will mate. Territories are often located in areas where there is a rich supply of wild game and/or water. Fierce fights between male coalitions, resulting in serious injury or death, can occur when defending territories. Coalitions of many male cheetahs are much more successful at winning and keeping territories than the ones who live alone. Life span is up to 12 years in wild. OFFSPRING: Two to four cubs are born to a litter. Cubs are smoky grey in color with long wooly hair, called a mantle, running along their backs. This mantle is thought to help camouflage cubs in grass, concealing them from predators. Mothers move cubs to new hiding places every few days. At five to six weeks, cubs follow the mother and begin eating from her kills. Cubs stay with their mother for about a year. THREATS: The future of the cheetah is doubtful because of increasing loss of habitat, declines in prey, high cub mortality rates and conflict with ranchers. Cheetah fur was formerly regarded as a status symbol. Today, cheetahs have a growing economic importance for ecotourism and they are also found in zoos. Because cheetahs are far less aggressive than other big cats, kittens are sometimes sold as pets. This is an illegal trade, because international conventions forbid private ownership of wild animals or species threatened with extinction. Cheetahs were formerly, and are sometimes still, hunted because many farmers believe that they eat livestock. When the species came under threat, numerous campaigns were launched to try to educate farmers and encourage them to conserve cheetahs. Recent evidence has shown that if cheetahs can avoid it they will not attack and eat livestock, preferring their wild prey. However, they have no problem with including farmland as part of their territory, leading to conflict. Cheetah cubs have a high mortality rate due to genetic factors and predation by carnivores in competition with the cheetah, such as the lion and hyena. Some biologists now believe that they are too inbred to flourish as a species. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Cheetah from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Cheetah from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Cheetah Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Cheetah

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Cheetah Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Cheetah is from you. WAF's Adopt A Cheetah symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a cheetah for yourself or order an Adopt A Cheetah as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Cheetah Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A KANGAROO

STATUS: Vulnerable, except for the Tasmanian forester kangaroo, which is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. DESCRIPTION: Kangaroos have powerful hind legs and short, thumbless forelimbs. Kangaroos can travel at speeds up to 30 miles per hour and can leap some 30 feet. Kangaroos use their long tails for balancing. Their bodies are covered in thick, coarse, wooly hair that can be shades of gray, brown or red. Kangaroos are marsupials, which means that females carry newborns, or "joeys," in a pouch on the front of their abdomens. Kangaroos have developed a number of adaptations to a dry, infertile continent and a highly variable climate. As with all marsupials, the young are born at a very early stage of development after a gestation of 31 to 36 days. At this stage, only the forelimbs are somewhat developed, to allow the newborn to climb to the pouch and attach to a teat. In comparison, a human embryo at a similar stage of development would be about 7 weeks old, and premature babies born at less than 23 weeks are usually not mature enough to survive. SIZE: Red and gray kangaroos stand between five and six feet tall. Most weigh between 50 and 120 pounds, though some can reach 200 pounds. Female kangaroos are generally smaller than males of the same species. POPULATION: Macropus giganteus (eastern gray kangaroo): 8,978,000. Macropus fuliginosus (western gray kangaroo): 1,774,000. Macropus rufus (red kangaroo): 8,351,000. LIFESPAN: On average, kangaroos live in the wild for six to eight years. RANGE: Kangaroos are found in Australia and Tasmania, as well as on surrounding islands. HABITAT: Kangaroos live in varied habitats, from forests and woodland areas to grassy plains and savannas. FOOD: Kangaroos are grazing herbivores, which means their diet consists mainly of grasses. They can survive long periods without water. BEHAVIOR: Kangaroos live and travel in organized groups or "mobs," dominated by the largest male. A mob may have ten or more males and females. The dominant male (called a boomer) is based on his size and age. A boomer has temporary exclusive access to females in a mob for mating. A boomer may find himself wandering in and out of a mob checking out the females and intimidating the other males who try to mate with the females within the mob. Courtship behavior in most species of kangaroos includes the male "checking" the female's cloaca. The males are often rejected by the females for their smaller size, but in the case of a larger kangaroo, the female may instead simply move away. Often, when the female is being checked, it urinates. The male kangaroo will then make a practice of sniffing the urine multiple times until it is satisfied, then proceed to the mating cycle. Studies of Kangaroo reproduction conclude that this ritual is typical for a male kangaroo to check if the female kangaroo is receptive to the male. The sexually aroused male follows the responsive female (she raises her tail). Tail scratching (a form of foreplay) can occur between the male and female. The arched tail is indicative that either one or both kangaroos are ready to mate. The male kangaroo may sometimes be found giving the female kangaroo a back rub before mating. Kangaroos are shy and retiring by nature, and in normal circumstances present no threat to humans. Male kangaroos often "box" amongst each other, playfully, for dominance, or in competition for mates. The dexterity of their forepaws is utilized in both punching and grappling with the foe, but the real danger lies in a serious kick with the hindleg. The sharpened toenails can disembowel an opponent, and this is the fate of many dogs that wrestle with a boomer. OFFSPRING: Usually, female kangaroos give birth to one joey at a time. Newborns weigh as little as 0.03 ounces at birth. After birth, the joey crawls into its mother’s pouch, where it will nurse and continue to grow and develop. Red kangaroo joeys do not leave the pouch for good until they are more than eight months old. Gray kangaroo joeys wait until they are almost a year old. A female kangaroo has the ability to freeze the development of an embryo until the previous joey is able to leave the pouch. The composition of the milk produced by the mother varies according to the needs of the joey. In addition, she is able to simultaneously produce two different kinds of milk for the newborn and the older joey who still lives in the pouch. THREATS: Humans hunt kangaroos for their meat and hides. Also, the introduction of domestic herbivores, such as sheep, cattle and rabbits, increases competition for many plants and may cause food scarcity in times of drought. Click Here To Adopt Your Animal Adopt A Kangaroo from World Animal Foundation Adopt A Kangaroo from World Animal Foundation and make a difference for animals and the environment. Your WAF Adopt A Kangaroo Kit comes in a Deluxe WAF Folder and includes: Glossy Photo of Your Adopted Kangaroo

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Help Animals Info Cards Packed With Information On Animal Issues & How You Can Help Animals And The Environment Adopt An Animal Adopt A Kangaroo Kits make great gifts and can be sent directly to the recipient. Simply supply the recipient's name and mailing address as shipping information. We'll even include a letter stating the Adopt A Kangaroo is from you. WAF's Adopt A Kangaroo symbolic adoption is $35 and helps the World Animal Foundation to preserve the planet and protect its animals. Adopt a kangaroo for yourself or order an Adopt A Kangaroo as a gift. Help make a difference for animals - Adopt A Kangaroo Today! Click Here To Adopt Your Animal

ADOPT A KOALA STATUS: Vulnerable. DESCRIPTION: Koalas have soft, wool-like fur that is gray above and white below. Their fur is mostly white on the underside below the neck, and their ears have long white hairs on the tips. The koala resembles a bear, but is actually a marsupial, a special kind of mammal which carries its young in a pouch. SIZE: Koalas are rather small, round animals. They weigh about 30 pounds and on average grow to be 2 feet tall. POPULATION: There are fewer than 100,000 koalas. LIFESPAN: Koalas can live as long as 17 years, although high mortality rates (due to car fatalities and dogs) for males lower their life expectancy to 2 to 10 years. RANGE: The koala's historic range stretches across Australia. Today they can be found only in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. HABITAT: Koalas prefer to live in eucalyptus forests, coastal islands, and low woodlands. FOOD: Koalas consume eucalyptus leaves and bark from 12 different eucalyptus tree species. They also consume mistletoe and box leaves. BEHAVIOR: Nocturnal mammals, koalas sleep for up to 16 hours a day. They are arboreal, which means that they live in trees. They do not live in big groups but rather prefer to be alone. Females are solitary and occupy distinct home ranges that they rarely leave. In the more fertile areas, these ranges overlap; in areas where suitable food trees are scarce they tend to be larger and more exclusive. Males are not territorial, but do not tolerate one another, particularly not during the breeding season: dominant individuals attack subordinate ones, and most adult males carry scars on their face, ears and forearms as a result. The koala is almost entirely arboreal. It does not make nests, but sleeps in a tree fork or on a branch. It climbs using its powerful claws for grip, usually moving quite slowly but can climb rapidly when needed. The koala will leap confidently from one tree to another if they are reasonably close together. Its climbing is aided by a pair of thumbs on each paw, and it is the only other animal aside from primates to possess fingerprints. Longer distances are traversed on the ground in a slow but effective waddle. If threatened, the koala breaks into a surprisingly athletic gallop, heading for the nearest tree and bounding up it to a safe height. There the koala waits for the intruder to go away with the patience of a creature that routinely sleeps for 18 hours a day. The koala is also rather adept at swimming. OFFSPRING: Koalas breed once a year. Gestation lasts 35 days, after which one koala is born. A baby koala is referred to as a joey and is hairless, blind, and earless. At birth the joey, only the size of a jelly bean, crawls into the downward facing pouch on the mother's belly (which is closed by a drawstring like muscle that the mother can tighten at will) and attaches itself to one of the two teats. Young remain hidden in the pouch for about six months, only feeding on milk. During this time they grow ears, eyes, and fur. The joey then begins to explore outside of the pouch. At about 30 weeks it has begun to eat the semi liquid form of the mother’s excrement called "pap". The baby koala will remain with the mother for another six months or so, riding on her back, and feeding on both milk and gum leaves until weaning is complete at about 12 months of age. Young females disperse to nearby areas at that time; young males often stay in the mother's home range until they are two or three years old. THREATS: Once numbering in the millions,