This week Angry Birds has teamed up with United for Wildlife to bring you a one off exclusive ‘Roll with the Pangolins’ tournament, aimed at raising awareness of the threat these animals face from poaching. Found in tropical regions across Africa and Asia, the eight living species of pangolin are all implicated in the illegal wildlife trade, being hunted and sold for their scales and meat. As a result, all eight species are now classified as globally endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened species, and face the prospect of extinction in the near future. Two of these species (the Chinese and Sunda pangolin) lay within the top 100 EDGE mammals.
Pangolins are the world’s only truly scaly mammals. They are famous for their ability to roll up into a tight ball for protection and can consume up to 200,000 ants and termites a day, lapping them up with their extraordinarily long, sticky tongue (Image: The Indian pangolin, Manis crassicaudata
United for Wildlife (UFW) is an organisation founded by the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, which aims to unite the world’s leading wildlife charities under a common goal; to preserve the earth’s species by creating a global movement for change. Prince William, the president of UFW, has shown his support for the pangolin awareness campaign by releasing this video: youtu.be/eTTXPd8iLsQ
The game is free to play from today until Sunday, and can be accessed from the following links:
Https://www.unitedforwildlife.org/#!/2014/11/play-angry-birds-roll-with-the-pangolins
Join Prince William (and the EDGE team of course!) in freeing caged pangolins before they hit the dinner plates, and learning more about the desperate situation facing these animals in the wild.
Help us raise awareness!
Here’s how you can help us spread the word:
1) Play the game and learn more about the threats facing pangolins
2) Share the game via twitter, Facebook or email (go to https://www.facebook.com/zsledgeofexistence?ref=hl and https://twitter.com/EDGEofExistence for direct links)
3) Share this blog
4) Visit the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group for more information at Https://www.pangolinsg.org/
Enjoy Rolling with Pangolins but please don’t forget to share with all your friends!