h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tomorrow is Birding Big Day! We are going out to see how many bird species we can find within 24 hours and within a 50 km radius. This year we're aiming for 235 species! It starts in a few hours … I hope I can get enough sleep!

It would be also great, if you could find a new species of a existing kind

Good hunting!

Thanks Prof!

THE REPORT:

Well it was a hectic day but at the end our team recorded 234 species, one less than what we targeted but nine more than last year. This put us in about 12th place in the country!

many species of bird are now becoming on the "near extinction list"

Hello prof! Yes in fact three of the species we saw are in serious danger. The one is the Short-Clawed Lark, a nice little birdie that may not look like much but is quite sweet. It has a very restricted distribution in South Africa and Botswana and is losing its habitat to various kinds of development. We also saw Cape and White-backed vultures. All vultures (except for the Palm-nut Vulture) are seriously endangered.

part "mankind's" fault and part climate change etc

It'll be TO late to alter mankind attitude to other lifeforms, until it's beyond mankind to even save itself