Today is World Animal Protection Day
"World Animal Protection Day" is celebrated annually on October 4. The holiday was established at the International Congress of the Movement for the protection of Nature in 1931. In Russia, World Animal Day has been celebrated since 2000. Despite the fact that the holiday is not included in the list of state memorable dates, it has received a wide response among the population, because its main goal is to draw public attention to the problem of endangered species. In Russia alone, 9 species and subspecies of animals have disappeared over the past 400 years. Among them are a tour, a steppe tarpan and a sea cow.
There is a federal project "Conservation of biological diversity and development of ecological tourism" within the framework of the national project "Ecology" in order to preserve unique species and protect animals in Russia. Separate strategies have been developed for the conservation of individual species. At the moment there are six: for snow leopard, Far Eastern leopard, bison, saiga, polar bear and a program for the restoration of Przewalski's horse. Strategies have been prepared for the conservation of argali, dzeren, sterkh, as well as a program for the restoration of the Front Asian leopard in the Caucasus.
In Tatarstan, in order to preserve the snow leopard population, it is planned to create a research center for the study of rare species of cats "Ak Bars". The project was initiated with the direct participation of leading scientific specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Ecology and Evolution Problems with the participation of FRC "KNC RAS" and KFU. The center will allow conducting scientific fundamental and applied research, not only in order to preserve the pure genome of an endangered species, but also to solve further multi-level tasks in medicine, genetics and other fields for the preservation and restoration of their populations.
The continuation of the Tatarstan Center for the Study of Rare Species of cats will be the Center for the Conservation of Biological Diversity "Snow Leopard" in the Altai Republic. It is planned to organize year-round tourist routes, family holidays, educational programs and observation of wild animals in the natural environment. In addition, t is planned to breed breeding stock of marals, create a nursery and grow and collect medicinal plants on the basis of the center.
The event was supported by the Ministry of Nature of Russia and included in the Draft comprehensive action plan for the creation of centers for the study, restoration and reintroduction of snow leopards in Russia.