Google's Valentine's Day Doodle Game Wants You to Save an Adorable, Endangered Species

Google

Google has unveiled its latest Valentine's Day-themed Google Doodle – and it's for a good cause.

It is an interactive game in which the player controls a lovesick pangolin to raise awareness for efforts to protect this endangered animal.

Because of their unique scales, pangolins are the most trafficked animal in the world. They are valued for their fur and their use in pseudoscientific folk medicine. In a blog post, Google software engineer Jordan Thompson wrote: “We hope that by playing this doodle game, you can learn a little more about these wonderful creatures.”

The search engine giant is calling on people to help the pangolin by donating and supporting the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).

Google.org, Google's charitable arm, also supported WWF in 2016 with a donation to protect the pangolin's habitat from poachers.

So what is the game actually like? Keep scrolling…

It's basically Sonic the Hedgehog with pangolins. It's pretty fun. You control a pangolin who learns to bake, make music, and make bouquets to impress his sweetheart.

On each of the four levels, you roll around at high speed, trying to collect pieces and reach the end before time runs out.

In the Google Doodle, pangolins are depicted in bright shades of purple, pink and yellow – but this is what they look like in real life.

Their scales make them highly sought after by poachers and animal traffickers. “There are eight species of pangolins, four each in Asia and Africa, and all are threatened, including two species classified as critically endangered,” says the WWF. “Pantagon populations have been devastated by poaching, including at least 80 percent of pangolins in Asia.”

Source: WWF

To play, just head over to Google and try it out. (It works on both desktop and mobile!)

Or, if you are lazy, Click here “

And if you want to learn more about WWF’s efforts to protect pangolins, Click here “

The post Google’s Valentine’s Day Doodle game challenges you to save an adorable endangered species appeared first on Business Insider.