Thread: The World Wildlife Fund Collection

Love the "Coin art" I think you should take it outta the water now

Choeropsis liberiensis - Pygmy Hippopatamus
Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a small West African Nation with a long complex history involving Colonial and local slave trade, the reverse migration of freed Slaves, rebellion against British rule until to today's unitary presidential constitutional republic. It has suffered several military coups, a one party state and juntas. The country has been pressured by Liberia and Charles Taylor had intervened directly in the state from Liberia by supporting the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) under the command of former Sierra Leonean army corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh. As lateas 2001 political violent had rocked the nation. During 1986-1987 when this coin was produced, Sierra Leone was being lead by the questionably elected government of Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh, whose government was fraught with corruption. Environmentally, the nation has been ravaged by deforestation secondary to heavy lumbering and slash and burn farming. Soil erosion is a major problem which is destabilizing the nations economy and putting the natives at risk. The capital, Freetown, sits on the third largest harbor in the world.

The environmental troubles in Sierra Leone and all of West Africa, for that matter, have adversely affected Pygmy Hippos everywhere they existed. The Nigerian subspecies has been extict at least from the 1940's and a Madagascar species went extinct about 500 years ago. They are mostly nocturnal herbivorous It is semi-aquatic, like its larger cousins.

Much has been learned of Hippo evolution within the last 2 decades. It was for many years thought to be related to Pigs, but modern generics and Clad analysis has shown them to be surprisingly most related to Whales! A mutual ancestor among the artiodactyls around 60 milliom years ago and separated a mere 7 million years ago (see hominid evolution for reference). This is a blink of the eye in geological history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whippomorpha




http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...enozoo2008.ogg







The Coin is a 10 Leones, .925 Fineness Silver Proof with a weight of 28.28 grams and a diameter. The British Mint made 25,000 of these coins.

BTW 10 if 25, 15 more to go

Montagu's Harrier is a favorite bird which had benefited from early agricultural practices until the use of powerful insecticides and newer, faster growing crops. By all reports, it is a very graceful flyer that lives from the Ural Mountains to Atlantic Ocean in most of temperate Europeand even parts of north Africa. In of itself, it is classified as having a "least concern" conservation status, but its health as a species has been subject of concern for several European countries who have made some adjustments in farming practices and behaviors for the benefit of the raptor.

Hungary claimed to have only 10 breeding pairs of the Harrier and put this graceful bird on a coin for the 25th anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund. The result one of the most exciting coin designs I'd ever seen for this 500 Forint 90% silver coin. It weighs 28 grams, and has a diameter of 40MM, making it one of the larger coins of the series. It was minted in the Hungarian mint (25000 coins) in proof.



The capture in engraving of the graceful wing span in action among the grasses is an outst

Dynamite shot of the 'Humpback' Mandy......

I don't think anyone really cares, but I'll finish it anyway.

Mandy

Please do finish.

Im enjoying reading the info and seeing the pics. Do continue!

Zambia contributed to the WWF 25th anniversary a coins celebrating the White-Winged Flufftail ( Sarothrura ayesi ).

The bird is a kind of rail, the family of Rallidae, birds which generally are either flightless or weak flyers. Interestingly enough, the weakness of flight means that when they migrated they often get blown off course and as a result have come to inhabit many isolated islands. The family is considered somewhat primitive and generally live in marsh lands.



A very rare species of Africa, they come in chestnut color with a whitish chin. I can't find much more information than on the flufftail, and avian classifications and families, although a lot of exciting work has been done in the field in the last 20 years.







The coin is a 10 Kwacha 0.925 Silver fineness, with a weight of 27.22 grms. and a diameter of 40mm, one of the largest coins in the collection.

It was minted in the British royal mint in proof grade, 25,000 specimens.

How much money do you have left Amanda?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1987-Sierra-...item519fdd99e0

Not that much money. And I wouldn't touch gold coins right now. They are overpriced.

Amanda

Colobus Badius Temminckii

This is one mean looking monkey that is from Western Africa from Senegal to Ghana. One of the three subspecies of Procolobus badius, it feeds on fruit and termite mounds. They are hunted by Chips, and very acrobatic and lively in the forest. They live in troops. There habitat are is being badly encroached by development in the populous West Africa.






Gambia is the smallest African Nation almost embedded into Senegal.



It is essentially the flood plain of the Gambia River which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. it is a member of the British Common Wealth .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambia

that is 13 of 25

The Mongolian People's Republic had contributed the the World Wildlife Federation's 25th Anniversary coin set a 28.28g, 38,61 diameter, 0.925 fineness Silver proof coin that commemorates the Snow Leopard (Panthera Unica). This is actually quite surprising because Mongolia is centered on its horse culture, dating back before the times of Genghis Khan. And within Mongolia exists the endangered Przewalski's horse, which was at one time even extinct in the wild until reintroduction from zoo stock. The native European wild horse, Equus ferus ferus, went extinct at the turn of the 20th century.

However, Mongolia chose and equally wonderful and rare animal to dress their coin, the Snow Pantha, which while documents in the 18th century, was not filmed or rediscovered by the West until recent times, a fact that is the focal point of a few documentary movies. recently the first Snow Leopard Den has been discovered. Today there are many snow leopards in zoos around the world, including the Bronx Zoo in new York City (for those not aware that The Bronx is in NYC).





This looks a bit meaner than your typical house pet.

Snow Leopards are listed as threatened and have populations spread around the Central Asian highlands. Although it is written that they range in India, Mongolia, West Pakistan, China, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Russia, the population figures that are documented do not include Mongolia.

There are also 600-700 snow leopards in zoos around the world.^[39]

Afghanistan	50,000	100-200?
Bhutan	15,000	100-200?
Tibet	1,100,000	2,000-2,500
India	75,000	200-600
Kazakhstan	50,000	180-200
Kyrgyzstan	105,000	150-500
Mongolia	101,000	500-1,000
Nepal	30,000	300-500
Pakistan	80,000	200-420
Tajikistan	100,000	180-220
Uzbekistan	10,000	20-50

Snow leopard in the San Diego Zoo.


Protected areas:

• Chitral National Park, in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
• Hemis National Park, in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
• Khunjerab National Park, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
• Nanda Devi National Park, in state of Uttarakhand, India, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.^[40]
• Qomolangma National Nature Preserve, Tibet, China.^[41]
• Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.^[42]
• Tumor Feng Nature Reserve, western Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China.^[43]
• Valley of Flowers National Park, Uttarakhand, India, a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.
• Shey-Phoksundo National Park, Dolpa, Nepal.
• Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, Baglung, Nepal.
• Annapurna Conservation Area, Western Nepal.
• Jigme Dorji National Park, Bhutan
• Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Mongolia
• Ubsunur Hollow, on the territorial border of Mongolia and the Republic of Tuva, Russia
• Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary, near Anini, India
• Aksu-Djabagly Nature Reserve, Kazakhstan
• Sarychat-Ertash State Nature Reserve, Kyrgyzstan
• Katun Nature Reserve, Russia
• Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary, Lahaul Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India
• Pin Valley National Park, Lahaul Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India
• Great Himalayan National Park, Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, India

Snow Leopard is the State Animal of Himachal Pradesh a north Indian State in the Western Himalayas.

14 out of 25 and counting