[Music]
over the past 4.5 billion years
planet earth has developed to where we
are now
[Music]
one tiny cell evolved into every single
one of the life forms we can find on
this planet
8.7 million species of animals plants
fungi and other microorganisms inhabit
the world today
they form a vast network providing the
basic essentials of life
food clean water and the air we breathe
but ecosystems species wild populations
and local varieties and breeds of
domesticated plants and animals are
shrinking
deteriorating and even vanishing
the essential interconnected web of life
on earth is becoming smaller
and increasingly frayed
one million species are at risk of
extinction
and it all leads back to just one factor
us human activities are behind
nature's rapid decline
the main human induced drivers of this
change are direct
exploitation climate change
pollution invasive species
and most importantly habitat loss
the global human population is
increasing rapidly
and as it does we're constantly
encroaching on the natural world and
animal habitats
continuous urbanization is leaving
wilderness less
and less space to flourish one of the
consequences of living in large urban
areas
is that we're cut off from the natural
world and losing that connection
means losing the understanding of how
planet earth
our home works so we need to find ways
to bring wilderness back
into our consciousness the vast majority
of people
have a deep connection with nature our
care for wildlife
is inherently within us we've had it
since we were children
if you think about it all your books
movies
clothes all of this was about wildlife
when you were a kid
love and appreciation for wildlife is
already there
we just need to figure out a way to
activate it and make it relevant to our
daily lives
one of the key ways of creating empathy
is creating understanding
the more i understand about the life of
an elephant the more i understand about
the life of a tiger
the easier it is for me to connect with
them the easier it is for me to think
about them on a regular basis and if i'm
doing that
that's what really starts to change the
course of the natural world
take the african elephant for example
elephants are known to be a keystone
species
meaning they play a fundamental role in
their environment
their ecosystem engineers shaping their
habitat
in a vitally important way
elephants need a lot of room to roam
habitat destruction and fragmentation
not only makes it harder for them to
find food and water
but also brings them into increased
conflict with humans
a dangerous prospect for both
in order to protect them
conservationists in the field
identify individuals in herds and collar
them with tracking devices
they track elephants to analyze their
location data
and to learn more about the herd's
movements
this allows them to study the elephant's
behavior
and identify their roots that are
constantly changing due to an
increasingly dynamic human landscape
tigers on the other hand live alone and
aggressively sent mark large territories
to keep their rivals away
[Music]
they're powerful nocturnal hunters that
travel many miles to find
buffalo deer wild pigs and other large
mammals
in order to hunt and eat they need large
patches of intact
continuous forest over the last decade
hunting and deforestation have reduced
tiger populations from hundreds of
thousands
to fewer than four thousand wild tigers
worldwide
bhutan is one of the last safe havens
where bengal tigers can roam freely
conservation work here focuses mainly on
keeping track
of the exact numbers of individuals and
following their movements
through trackers and camera traps
similar to tigers pangolins are shy
nocturnal animals
these scaly mammals are found across
africa and asia
where they live in forests and dense
bush or shrublands
strongly depending on intact ecosystems
to provide their diet of ants and
termites
[Music]
unfortunately pangolins are the most
illegally trafficked mammal in the world
today
taken out of the wild their scales are
then trafficked and sold on
international markets
pangolins are very difficult to breed in
captivity
which makes it even more important for
conservationists to protect them
in their natural habitat they use very
similar methods to those for elephants
tracking devices are attached to wild
pangolins in order to follow their
movements
together with footage from camera traps
scientists can evaluate the data to gain
a better understanding of wild
[Music]
populations
so how can all that data collected by
scientists in the field
help reconnect us with the natural world
science is all based on truth but that
truth is trelling an incredible
storyline and so
what we really want to be able to do is
figure out how can we take
all of this scientific data all of this
scientific research
and bring those stories to people in a
way that's incredibly compelling for
them
technology has a real ability to take
stories
that are happening all over the world in
the natural world
with wildlife and bring them directly to
people no matter
no matter where they are
[Music]
if you want to get involved in these
wildlife stories you can
have a look at the description and
compete with real animals in the wild
if you run wild they can run wild too