With Earth Day's 45th anniversary celebration yesterday, it seems a good time to review the World Wildlife Fund's lovely awareness-raising app WWF Together (2013).

The app introduces sixteen endangered species from around the world, each characterized with a quality emphasizing its uniqueness: e.g., panda ("charisma"), elephant ("intelligence"), marine turtle ("longevity"), tiger ("solitude"). Each animal receives its own interactive "story," comprised of stats (population numbers in the wild; habitat; weight and length; and "distance from you," the user, if you enabled your device's location services), spectacular high-def photos, information on threats to its survival, and conservation efforts (particularly WWF's). Tap an info icon at a photo's bottom corner to trigger a related pop-up fact — did you know gorillas live in stable family groups, or that bison have been around since the ice age? Many of the stories also include "facetime" (close-up videos with narration) and/or educational activities. At the conclusion of each animal's section is an opportunity to share it via email or social media and to explore symbolic adoption options.





In addition to truly gorgeous photographs and video of these endangered animals, a cool animated-origami design element illustrates the text throughout. Disappointingly, every time I tried to access the (real-life) origami folding instructions from the app, it crashed — which may well be the fault of our iPad. But they're easy enough to find and download (for free, although email registration is required) on WWF's website.

From an unobtrusive menu along the left side, you can access a globe — also with a "folded paper" look — which shows locations of all of the featured species for a global perspective and supplies information on additional endangered species. A news section frequently updates the app with current information. Soothing acoustic music by Copilot rounds out this informative and moving app.

Available for iPad (requires iOS 6.0 or later) and Android devices; free. Recommended for intermediate users and up.