KARACHI, Aug 29: Students at a lecture on Thursday were told that all species, including the wildlife species, played an important role in environment and if anyone of those became extinct, it could cause an irreparable loss to environment.

The lecture about various species and their role in environment was given by the Karachi Zoological Gardens zoologist Abida Sabir to the students of the Public School Site Town who had come to visit the zoo.

The zoo has been organizing educational programmes to create awareness regarding the wildlife. Last year it organized 11 programmes. One programme was also organized for the handicapped people. Students are the target group as they are more receptive to learning and if the message is conveyed properly, they can be expected to become more animal friendly.

The students, during their three hour-long programme, “Night Walk in Zoo”, were first given a lecture in the zoo’s Natural History Museum and shown slides of various wildlife species. A quiz was also held and the students also participated in a drawing competition and drew various animals.

Later, they were taken on a guided tour around the cages where carnivorous animals majority of whom become active after sunset, are kept, to show them their nocturnal activities.

Zoo director Mansoor Qazi said the Karachi zoo was visited by 3.5 to 4 million visitors — approximately 50 per cent of them, youth particularly students — annually, so the zoo had started holding educational programmes.

He said that rapid urbanization, deforestation, habitat destruction and environmental pollution were taking their toll on the wildlife and the number of species was declining at an alarming rate.