Fourth Saturday, September - World Rabbit Day

4th Saturday of September - World Rabbit Day

International Rabbit Day is celebrated on the fourth Saturday of September every year.  It was founded in 1998 by The Rabbit Charity in the U.K., and it became a significant day to celebrate and spread awareness about rabbit protection and conservation.

In their natural habitats, rabbits serve the two main functions of keeping plant life in check and providing food for carnivorous predators.  Because they can eat a wide variety of plants. Populations of rabbits play an important role in keeping fast-growing weeds and plants from overgrowing. In recent years its population has declined due to several factors including habitat transformation and viral diseases. 

Do you know, Rabbits perform an athletic leap, known as a 'binky' when they're happy-performing twists and kicks in midair.

3rd Saturday, September: International Red Panda Day

 International Red Panda Day

The Red Panda Network launched International Red Panda Day in 2010. Since then, the third Saturday in September every year is celebrated as Red Panda Day.

They were discovered in 1825, 50 years before the giant panda.  Other names for the red panda include bear-cat, firefox, and the Himalayan raccoon (though they are not relatives).  Red pandas are the only living member of their taxonomic family.

Red pandas eat mostly bamboo, they eat about 20000 leaves each day.  They have gotten their name from the Nepali word "Ponya" which means bamboo or plant-eating animal.

Red pandas weigh between 12 to 20 pounds, which is about the size of a housecat. These adorable mammals are very skillful and acrobatic animals and they predominantly stay in the trees of the Himalaya Mountains. The Red panda’s popularity in Asia features them in cartoons and as team mascots. However, only about 10,000 red pandas live in the wild. Because of deforestation, poaching, and the illegal pet trade, red pandas are endangered.

We all can save them, by preserving their habitat and adopting them,  actually not literally, If we pay some money to the zoo or nature reserve, they will use that for their upkeeping, food, and other purposes.  I learned that RedPandaNetwork.org is one such network.

For our next family occasion, birthdays, etc. why don't we adopt one animal.

The below Red Panda stamp was issued by India post in 2009.

27th September : World Tourism Day

Tourism is one of the major determinant of a country's economy and development. Over the past few decades, tourism has been expanding rapidly due to a variety of factors, like advancement in Technology, boom in economy etc. Tourism has many sub categories under it for example, eco-tourism, educational tourism, sustainable tourism, religious tourism, medical tourism etc.

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) on 15th September 2017 at their 22nd UNWTO conference took a major step to improving sustainable tourism by declaring 27th September as World Tourism day and 2017 as International Year of Sustainable tourism for development.

Sustainable development means development of the present without compromising the needs of the future generations. 

Tourism in India , 2016

Tourism destinations of Indonesia, 2017