Yaussy does admit that his method of highlighting especially bizarre animals may not be all that different than that of the panda-promoting World Wildlife Fund, a frequent target of his playful admonishment. The panda is the federation's "flagship species," he explains, which it uses with other charismatic creatures to promulgate the idea that saving the rainforest will, by extension, also save these beautiful animals. Whereas the WWF is "putting on the pretty face, I'm trying to pull in the 10-year-old boy in all of us to say, 'That's so cool!'" he remarks. At the end of the day, his hope is that "by saving the habitat, you'll save everything—the pretty things, the ugly things."
Stokes doesn't subscribe to that tidy idea entirely. Recent research has shown that the habitat of one highly endangered species rarely overlaps with that of another, he says. But he doesn't discount the usefulness of a central species for the purposes of education. The Stag Beetle Project, for instance, which is headed by the London Wildlife Trust, has helped raise awareness—and sterling pounds—for a large, fierce-looking insect.
By and large, he says, communities that can rally around one particular species, whether it's a monkey or a mollusk, do a better job adopting policies to protect biodiversity in general. But the key, he notes, is to be aware of our natural preference for some animals' appearance over others.
"This matters because people are going to increasingly be making the decision about what species survive and what don't," Stokes says. "So we want to be able to make sure that we make educated decisions."
Subscription Center
See what we're tweeting about
7 Comments
Add CommentCouldn't agree any better! There are several of these creatures like the seacucumber that's often ignored simply because they aren't as attractive as corals or seaanemones...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood article - we've linked to it in our blog. The axolotl picture is great. The media bias is something we'll try to take into account.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishow can you call the African wild dog ugly? i think it has beautiful coloration
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs Henry Beston once wrote,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"For the animal shall not be measured by the man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and more complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear."
Ugliness is in the mind of the beholder.
After researching endangered animals for a school project i was maddened by the fact that when looking up minke whales i found so much anti-whaling propaganda, yet when i googled, Orange Roughy i was swamped with recipes!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMinke Whales aren't endangered whilst Orange Roughy are being seriously threatened by very dubious and detrimental local fishing practices.
I am so glad that there are others out there that are similarly dismayed :)
So is it better to kill vegetables for food than animals, just because they do not look cute or cannot cry out? Did you ever watch a vegetable cell under a microscope as it sqirms and finally explodes due to heat?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of my favorite songs is by Traffic "John Barleycorn Must Die".
Vegetarians are among the greatest scientific idiots.
This isn't about vegetarianism, in my opinion you can receive your nutrients from animals, but we have a responsibility to be aware of the consequences of what we put on our plate, and not be persuaded by irrelevant emotional triggers
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this