Endangered Species Day

Endangered Species Day is on the 17^th of May and is a time to recognise and promote action for species which are close to becoming extinct. Here at The Cheeky Panda, we believe this is an important day to highlight the damage to animal populations and promote urgent conservation to avoid any further species loss. After all, where would we be without our loveable Panda mascot Colin!?

According to the WWF’s Living Planet Report, since 1970 average population sizes of wildlife have declined by 69%. This has been due to human actions such as overhunting, overfishing, land conversion, climate change and pollution. The IUCN’s Red List shows that as of 2024,16,000 species are endangered!

Among the most endangered species are:

• Rhinos
• Orangutans
• Gorillas
• Tigers
• Turtles
• Elephants

As a company we believe that we should play a role in conservation of our planet, after all, sustainability is at our heart. This is why we have partnered with the WWF for a collaboration range which will commit £20,000 of funding towards their impact projects. These include conservation for:

Tigers

Since the beginning of the 20^th century there has been a 95% decrease in tiger populations from poaching, habitats being turned into livestock. In Nepal, the WWF is improving tiger protection systems as well as restoring their habitats. The impact of this was seen in July 2022 when the number of tigers in Nepal doubled to 355 in the wild.

Giant Pandas

They really couldn’t be closer to our heart! At one-point giant pandas were all over China, North Vietnam and North Myanmar but shockingly are now only found in the wild in 6 isolated mountain ranges and were on the IUCN Red List of endangered animals! The WWF have been working to set up protected areas with 2/3rds of all pandas living in nature reserves. This resulted in them being down listed from the endangered category to threatened. Although is a big result, the WWF is working to restore populations further and even work with local communities to develop alternative livelihoods which won’t impact panda habitats such as beekeeping.

If you'd like to see our WWF collaboration range it can be found here.

So, on the 17^th of May take time to recognise the danger that animals and wildlife face in our world but also the impact you can make to change this! After all, who wants to live in a world without any Giant (cheeky) Pandas?!