Happy World Wildlife Day! Today is an important day to recognize the value of wild animals and plants and appreciate how they contribute to the beauty and health of our planet. If you want to learn more about World Wildlife Day, you can do so on this UN website.
The theme of 2024's World Wildlife Day is "Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation." While in our world that means technological advances to help preserve our wildlife, I thought in the spirit of the day that it would be fun to look at two connections between technology and wildlife in the galaxy far, far away.
Purrgil
First introduced in Star Wars Rebels, we know the purrgil to be space whales that can travel through hyperspace naturally, and inspired people to construct ships that could do the same. Though even when hyperspace technology develops, the natural ability of the purrgils still rises above. When they need to go beyond the outer rim of the galaxy, Ahsoka and Huyang must use the purrgils to travel and find Sabine and Ezra. The purrgil are a great example of how we can look at nature and be inspired to develop our own technologies.
While purrgil are space whales, if you'd like to donate to help save the whales in our real world, you can do so with Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA.
SF-R3
SF-R3 is a safari droid who sets out across the galaxy to learn about the full breadth of different creatures that it has to offer, and teach us viewers at home about it. Despite being himself a droid and product of technology, Aree is passionate and cares deeply about all of the creatures he studies, and seems to (usually) enjoy the adventures his journey takes him on. Aree is a really great example of how important of a tool that advanced technology can be in preserving and studying the natural world.
SF-R3 educates us about interesting creatures in the galaxy far, far away, we can only continue to learn about the creatures on our planet if they're still around. If you're intersted, you could donate to the World Wildlife Fund in honor of World Wildlife Day.