Snow leopards, penguins and polar bears live thousands of miles apart, in the coldest, harshest reaches of the planet. But they’re all connected by the greatest environmental challenge our world has ever faced – climate change.
These iconic and much-loved animals are feeling the effects of our changing climate more than most. Please, will you send your gift to help them?
You’re probably familiar with the north and south poles, home to polar bears and penguins. Yet did you know that there's a region in central and south Asia widely known as the third pole? It encompasses the Hindu Kush Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau – and its majestic snow-capped mountains are home to rare and elusive snow leopards.
Together, we can achieve positive change
Your kind gift this Christmas can help protect snow leopards, penguins and polar bears, and fight the climate crisis that threatens our one shared home.
Here are just some of the ways your donation could help:
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Impacting the planet
Impacting the planet
The world’s frozen regions are vital in regulating our planet’s climate by reflecting the sun’s rays back into space, helping to keep the Earth at an even temperature. But the warming climate is causing sea ice, snow and permafrost to melt, so more heat is being absorbed by land and sea, magnifying the warming effect.
Scientists predict there may be virtually no summer sea ice in the Arctic within the next 20 years, while temperatures in parts of the Antarctic Peninsula have risen five times faster than the global average. Even small-scale melting is likely to have significant effects on global sea levels and cause flooding around the world. Meanwhile, rising temperatures in parts of the Himalayas are melting permafrost, releasing tonnes of carbon from dead and previously frozen plant matter and adding to damaging greenhouse gas emissions.
THREATENING WILDLIFE
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© National Geographic Creative / Paul Nicklen / WWFLOSING FOOD
Adélie penguins rely on Antarctic krill – tiny shrimp-like creatures that need sea ice to breed and feed under. Krill also support many other species, including magnificent blue whales, and are fished commercially for aquarium feed and health supplements.
Without krill, the entire Antarctic ecosystem as we know it would be very different, yet populations have fallen dramatically in the past 40-50 years. As the Southern Ocean warms and sea ice declines, krill are moving southwards to find more favourable breeding grounds. This is reducing vital food for penguins and increasing competition between krill-dependent species.
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© Florian Schulz / visionsofthewild.comLEFT STRANDED
Polar bears use sea ice as a platform from which to hunt seals and reach their denning sites. But declining summer sea ice is leaving many bears stranded and at risk of starving on land. When this happens, the hungry bears are more likely to look for food in nearby communities, increasing the risk of conflict with local people.
Pregnant females are particularly vulnerable, as they need enough seals to build their energy reserves and sustain their pregnancies, as well as producing milk for their cubs. Alarmingly, scientists predict that if the sea ice melts one month earlier than at present, over 40% of all polar bear pregnancies could fail.
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© Klein & Hubert / WWFPUSHED TO THE EDGE
As parts of the high Himalayas warm, people are able to grow crops and graze livestock at higher altitudes overlapping crucial snow leopard habitats. Already squeezed into smaller, more fragmented areas, snow leopards could be pushed to the very edges of their world, with nowhere left to go.
At the same time, the alpine meadows that support the snow leopards' natural prey are disappearing, increasing the risk of them hunting livestock instead. In remote, rural areas people rely on their livestock as the main source of food and income for their families. They can tolerate some livestock losses, but mass killings by snow leopards can lead to the big cats being attacked in retaliation.
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TIME TO TAKE ACTION
TIME TO TAKE ACTION
Our changing climate poses the greatest long-term threat not just to snow leopards, penguins and polar bears, but to our one shared home. Together, we can find solutions
By monitoring vulnerable wildlife and working with the people who share their habitats, we’re gaining crucial information about the effects of climate change and are helping to co-create solutions to threats such habitat loss and conflict. At the same time, we’re pushing world governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put the world on a safer course.
FINDING THE ANSWERS
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North pole
With our partners, the Norwegian Polar Institute, we’re monitoring polar bears and their denning sites in Svalbard, Norway, while our WWF colleagues in Canada and Russia are carrying out vital research on polar bear populations to inform crucial conservation measures. Recent successes include helping to gain official protection of a region known as ‘the Last Ice Area’ above Canada and Greenland – where summer sea ice is projected to last the longest.
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Himalayas
In the high Himalayas, we support snow leopard conservation committees (SLCC) run by local people. The SLCC set up camera traps and patrol the mountainsides looking for signs of the big cats. They also work with communities on a range of measures to reduce pressure on snow leopards, people and the environment. These include improving grazing practices, building predator-proof livestock enclosures, and setting up livestock insurance schemes to compensate local herders for their losses.
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© National Geographic Creative / Jan Vermeer / WWFSouth Pole
In Antarctica, we support the crucial work of the Dumont D’Urville research team on Terre Adélie, as well as the British Antarctic Survey and other partners. Together, we’re uncovering vital data on how climate change is impacting different penguin species. We’re using the findings to push for a network of marine protected areas across the Southern Ocean. Recently, we helped achieve an agreement to make the 4,500 sq km area around Hope Bay in the Antarctic Peninsula off-limits to krill fishing all year round – safeguarding the world’s largest Adélie penguin colony.
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There's no time to lose
Together we can fight the climate crisis and help protect snow leopards, penguins, polar bears and the planet we share. Please help us, by sending your gift today.