Earth Day, marked annually by Google with one of its famous doodles, has been given a beatific and celebratory treatment by the internet giant today.

In the place of last year's depiction of the hydrological cycle and 2012's flowers, this year's doodle is half a dozen animated illustrations of species, from the photographer's favourite, the Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), to the Rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus), a small bird found mostly on the west coast of the US.

Also featured are the puffer fish, dung beetle, veiled chameleon and moon jellyfish. The collection appear to be chosen on the basis of being inspirational or beautiful rather than being endangered; Google's doodle is accompanied by a photo-sharing initiative on Google+ called #MyBeautifulEarth.

This year is the 44th anniversary of Earth Day, which was started in the US. It was the creation in large part of Gaylord Nelson, a US senator and Democrat, who died in 2005. It is designed to "[activate] individuals and organizations to strengthen the collective fight against man's exploitive relationship with the planet."

The Earth Day website this year says that:

Our planet is at a turning point. The massive global migration underway now from countryside to cities will demand huge investments in energy, water, materials, waste, food distribution, and transportation over the next 25 years. If the right investments are made now, this unique opportunity will be the catalyst for dramatic changes in the built environment and the fight against carbon emissions and climate change.

This year's anniversary follows a trilogy of recent major reports from the UN's climate science panel, the last of which concluded earlier this month that the cheapest and least risky route to dealing with global warming is to abandon all dirty fossil fuels in coming decades.