Otters, bison, marine mammals and fish can help fight climate change, reports AFP, citing a scientific study.

Forests, oceans and wetlands are carbon sinks that help limit climate change.

Nine animal species could also play a key role in limiting global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to new research.

Some animal species help sequester carbon through their lifestyles.

Restoring or protecting populations of marine fish, whales, sharks, gray wolves, wildebeest, sea otter, bighorn sheep, African forest elephant and American bison could sequester 6.41 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide per year, study finds , published in Nature Climate Change.

The authors of the development are 15 scientists from eight countries.

This potential capture, combined with other emission reduction measures, represents more than 95 percent of the annual amount needed to meet the global goal of eliminating 500 gigatonnes of carbon from the atmosphere by 2100. It would limit global warming to below the 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is the pre-industrial level. 

Wildlife accounts for only 0.3 percent of the carbon content of Earth's biomass and is therefore neglected in carbon calculations.

However, multiple species can affect the carbon cycle and provoke between 15 and 250 percent changes in the amounts of carbon dioxide absorbed and captured by plants and soil, Oswald Schmitz, a professor at Yale University and lead author of the study, told AFP.  

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The African forest elephant, for example, not only feeds on and spreads the seeds of plants important for carbon sequestration, but also excretes sprouts of those plants in its excrement.

Restoring the elephant population, between 500,000 and 1 million, could help capture 13 million tons of hydrogen annually.

Elephant numbers have declined by 86 percent in the past 31 years.

We don't have time, we are losing the populations of many species that play an important role in the ecosystem and help to capture carbon, emphasizes Magnus Silvin, who is one of the authors of the study. 

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