They are the pollination super stars! Honeybees account for about 80 percent of all pollination by insects. They visit a large variety of plants, collecting pollen and nectar taking it back to their hive. Each hive can collect about 66 pounds of pollen every year. As well as the honeybees, there are several thousand wild bee species. Most of those live a solitary life, not in hives.

They are bigger and hairier than honeybees, but just as useful: bumblebees also feed on floral nectar, using their long hairy tongues to collect the delicious liquid. Bumblebees are social animals like honeybees, but form much smaller colonies of only about 50 to 600 individuals.

Wasps have a bad reputation and the vast majority of wasp species play no role in pollination. That is because wasps have a smooth body without hairs, and pollen doesn't stick to them. Pollen wasps are different, though. They collect pollen and nectar inside their throats and feed their young with it.

These little creatures try to look dangerous by imitating the coloring of bees and wasps - but they are harmless and cannot sting. They are often seen hovering above flowers. The adults love nectar and pollen and are important pollinators. Hoverfly larvae are also useful: they feed on aphids and thus help with pest control.

They look a bit like a cross between a fly and a bee, hence their name. Bee flies can grow to up to four centimeters. They live in many parts of the world, but are most diverse in the tropics and subtropics. Adult bee flies love pollen and nectar; their larvae, though, feed on the eggs or larvae of other insects.

There are more than 18,000 species of butterflies, and most of them are brightly coloured. With their long, thin legs and relatively small bodies, they cannot carry as much pollen as bees. Still, they do a good job pollinating plants. Unlike bees, butterflies can see red which attracts them to different blooms than bees.

Moths are less colourful than butterflies, but they still belong to the same family. Moths fly at night. That's why they do not need bright colours. But they also feed on flowering plants. Some moths, and especially their caterpillars, are major agricultural pests, though.

Did you know that beetles also play a role in pollination? Some of them do, such as the flower scarab, also called flower beetle. As the name suggest, they visit flowers for pollen and nectar. There are around 4,000 species. One is the green rose chafer (photo).

It is not only insects that do the pollinator's job - there are birds on duty as well. Especially birds with long slim bills like hummingbirds carry pollen from one flower to the next when feeding on nectar. Some species of plants have even evolved to produce flowers that appear especially attractive to hummingbirds.

Some other birds belonging to the passerine group also appreciate floral nectar. Take this Seychelles sunbird. Its long, slender bill shows that it is specialized on drinking from flower blossoms. This species is especially fond of hibiscus flowers.

Bats - including their larger relatives, the fruit bats - play an important role in plant distribution and reproduction. While some bat species prefer insects, others feed on fruit or on nectar. When they drink nectar with their long tongues, they transfer pollen from one blossom to the next.

In Madagascar, primates like this mouse lemur pollinate flowers and are even essential to the reproduction of some tree species. They stick their noses into the flowers to drink nectar, and pollen collects on their snouts.

Yes, there are even some species of lizard and snake that help with pollination. Researchers found that, especially on islands, lizards are important pollinators. They suspect that lizards have fewer predators on islands and are therefore more numerous. On these islands they can roam around more freely and expand their diet to nectar, pollen and fruit.

Let's start with the good news. According to the latest Red List update, the number of mountain gorillas has significantly increased. The IUCN has said the number of animals has risen from about 680 a decade ago to more than 1,000 now. Intensive conservation action such as removal of snares has contributed to the rebound of the mountain gorilla, which inhabits the Congo region's jungles.

Fin whales are now considered vulnerable rather than the more worrisome label of endangered. Their number has roughly doubled since the 1970s, to around 100,000 individuals, according to the IUCN. The situation of gray whales has also been upgraded — from critically endangered to endangered. Bans on commercial whaling have made a real impact on conservation.

Yet the IUCN also issued warnings about the consequences of overfishing. For example, 13 percent of grouper species worldwide and 9 percent of the approximately 450 fish species in Lake Malawi in eastern Africa are threatened with extinction. "Depleting fish stocks are a serious concern for food security, particularly for coastal communities in developing countries," the IUCN said.

In a previous Red List update, the Mauritian flying fox — an important pollinator — moved from vulnerable to endangered. The bat population fell by a whopping 50 percent from 2015 to 2016 due largely to government-implemented culling sparked by alleged damage to fruit crops. The megabat species also faces threats from deforestation, illegal hunting and an increase in cyclone activity.

Invasive species are threatening a number of unique Australian reptiles. This grassland earless dragon has shifted from vulnerable to endangered. It often falls prey to feral cats, as well as changes to the intensity and frequency of bushfires. Like most native Australian wildlife, the reptile is adapted to environmental conditions that existed before European settlement.

Taking its name from "The Lord of the Rings" character Smeagol — aka Gollum — the precious stream toad is also on the list of species threatened with extinction. It is listed as vulnerable, largely as a result of expanding tourist resorts and complexes in its Genting Highlands habitat in Malaysia.

The population of keas, New Zealand's Bird of the Year 2017, is declining rapidly, mostly due to tourists who keep feeding the curious parrots junk food. As a result, the birds get used to trying novel food and end up eating poison bait meant to control pests such as rats, stoats, or possums, which destroy up to 60 percent of the birds' nests each year. You can see the connection, can't you?

Black-legged kittiwakes rely on certain key prey, like sand eels. But a lack of eels to eat means breeding colonies in the North Atlantic and Pacific are struggling to feed their chicks. Globally, the species is thought to have declined by around 40 percent since the 1970s. The main cause is overfishing and alterations in the ocean due to climate change.

The snowy owl is vulnerable, with recent population estimates much lower than previously thought. Climate change has hit the iconic Arctic bird hard, as it has increased snowmelt and reduced the availability of rodent prey. A quarter of bird species reassessed in the Red List, including the snowy owl, have become more endangered.

Five species of African antelopes — of which four were previously assessed as least concern — have been declining drastically as a result of poaching, habitat degradation and competition with domestic livestock. One of these is the gray rhebok, for which the Reebok sports brand is named.

The world's largest antelope, the giant eland — previously assessed as least concern — is also vulnerable. Its estimated global population is between 12,000 and 14,000 at most, with fewer than 10,000 mature animals. This species is declining due to poaching for bushmeat, human encroachment into protected areas and expansion of agriculture and livestock grazing.