![]() ![]() Wasps, in reality, are just as useful - if not more useful - as pollinators than bees they act as population control for other insects who eat crops we also eat and like bees and other insects, they are also critically threatened by climate change and habitat destruction. And the available research reflects that bias. We can’t really see the point of the wasp, especially in comparison to their buzzy, Instagrammable relative, the bee. Most people hate wasps: They ruin picnics, they sting, they just seem mean. This preference for cute, cuddly, useful, or beautiful doesn’t just dominate the general public’s perception of worthiness in animals, scientists, too, and the organizations that fund them, are guilty of a charisma bias. “But for most people, emotional criteria are the ones that count and it’s probably not that different from consumerism in general, the kind of things that we buy.” “In some cases, they are logical values - doesn’t matter how ugly something is, if it’s edible and useful or if it perhaps serves some absolutely essential function,” he explained. The criteria we use to judge an animal’s value is still, overwhelmingly, based on “human values,” he tells me. ![]() Little has changed since Small wrote his article. Ultimately, he wrote, “the world’s biodiversity is being beautified by selective conservation of attractive species, while the plight of the overwhelming majority of species is receiving limited attention.” He found that although relying on charismatic animals to raise public awareness and funds for their conservation was effective and useful, there was limited evidence that aid for these marquee creatures was trickling down to the less attractive ones. Ernest Small, a research scientist with Canada’s governmental agricultural research center in Ottawa, investigated this bias against creatures who, for whatever reason, don’t make the charisma cut. Save the creatures that most people find too icky, too prickly, too creepy to care about. Their mission? Save the dromedary jumping slugs and the Lake Titicaca frogs (also known as the “scrotum frog” for reasons that become obvious fairly quickly), the Cuban solenodons and the Chinhai spiny newts. Watt knows unusual and often maligned animals an evolutionary biologist, comedian, TV presenter, and writer, he is also the founder of the UK-based Ugly Animal Preservation Society. “It just works it’s a good example of evolution not caring what we think about it,” said Watt. They get their name, however, from their unusual feeding practices: Adult Dracula ants can’t digest solid food, so instead, they feed their prey to their larvae - and then suck their larvae’s blood in an act of “non-destructive cannibalism.” Natives of Madagascar, these tiny ants can snap their jaws shut at around 200 miles per hour, making them the fastest-moving creature on the planet. SIMON WATT’S FAVORITE animal changes all the time, but right now, it’s the Dracula ant. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |