Another Journal stolen from Serio555, the awesome scientist/artist I watch on DA.
The Encyclopedia Of Life [link] has recently been opened, and visitors can have a look at this work-in-progress, which, at the moment, contains mainly some barebone informations. This is understandable as it is merely the first glimpse of what is basically a souped-up, global, uber-scaled up version of a very simple, librarian-esque premise: To document ALL existing life forms on this planet (at least for now, as we do not know of any life forms on other planets as yet).
An honorable goal, but one can’t help but wonder: will this project showcase the beauty and biodiversity that exist on the planet, or will it, in a hundred years’ time, simply be a memoir to all those creatures that once shared this planet? Will we tell our descendants about these animals merely from archived photos, or simply as “the funny looking one that tastes like chicken”?
Sure, there are a lot of conservation efforts going on. But a majority of this goes to the cute and cuddly, to the big and majestic animals that captures our imagination. People swoon at baby pandas, and marvel at the big cats. This is because pandas are cute, and chibi pandas even more so (Seriously, if you see a baby panda and not go “awwww…”, you are a sick, twisted person who should be in a mental institution). The same goes to baby polar bears with their fluffy cuteness, baby penguins with their silly waddle, and baby tigers which everyone dreamed of having as a pet. But what about the ugly ones which people do not want to see on T-shirts and mugs, the ones that look like extras in a b-grade horror flick?
One example is the Aye Aye [link] [link] . Looking like the love child of Gollum who’s contracted some strange venereal disease, it isn’t a pretty sight. In fact, it is ugly enough that the superstitious natives think it’s the devil and thus it is often killed simply for looking hideous. And to make matters worse, it is also rather stupid, and thus aren’t really afraid of people and at times simply walk (or creep) nonchalantly into the villages. “Hakuna matata”… then “splat”. Another famous animal who exhibited this kind of behaviour was the Dodo, who was probably the first example of convenient takeaway food: sailors would simply walk up to one, and “WHAM!” – dinner.
Another lot that often falls in this category are the amphibians – there is a much higher proportions of endangered amphibians compared to other groups, and yet you rarely see them on WWF posters. Since amphibians generally have narrower geographical distributions than other animals, they are more susceptible to loss of habitat. And for those that breathes through their skin, they are also highly affected by water quality, and as such their decline can be very rapid. But creatures like the giant salamander [link] , looking like an obese, shaved cat whose been ran over by a truck, isn’t exactly poster boy material.
And lastly, there’s the problem with the world’s fisheries. Unlike other animals, we can’t exactly see fishes dying. A lot of people get worked up about the Japanese killing Minke Whales [link] , even though that particular species isn’t quite endangered. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with whaling, but since whale meat contains so much mercury those who eat them will probably ended up with brain damage and their offspring retarded anyway, so the problem may practically solve themselves. However, pictures of whales getting harpooned makes good PR, and great rallying points for all the tree-huggin, PETA hippies who believe that we should have sex with animals instead of eating them.
In contrast, the baiji (Yangtze River Dolphin) makes Douglas Adams sounds prophetic in his “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. They simply disappear, as if saying “So long, and thanks for all the fish”. It is also a rather sad irony that fishes named “Common Skate” and “Common Sawfish” are actually critically endangered, but if something as marketable as a dolphin can’t get enough attention to save itself, what chance do others have when the only time people see them is when they are deep-fried in batter? Woe may befalls the beautiful, but it is also true for the tasty. Bluefin Tuna, often worshiped in sushi and sashimi form (if the sushi is very expensive, chances are it’s bluefin – cheaper ones use yellowfin, mackerel, striped, or bigeye tuna), faces a possible collapse like that of Cod in the northern oceans. Sadly, it’s a vicious circle of price goes up-fishing intensifies-fish numbers go down-prices goes further up-…… and so and so [link] . Unfortunately, quite often the only solution to these kinds of problem is to start farming them before it’s too late.
Humans have made a lot of mistakes in the past, such as the case of the passenger pigeons [link] . How something that once numbered in the billions can become extinct boggles the mind, but unfortunately in the end, no one has a clear idea why that is. Maybe they just can’t get it on without their whole clan cheering them on (unlike humans who would probably feel uncomfortable to procreate with millions others watching). Abundant food animals such as fish may face the same problems, in that their population may never recover below a certain, mostly unknown threshold, and commercial interests often complicates conservation efforts i.e. do you care about the fish, or the fisherman whose fished there all his life and has a wife and three kids that needs to be fed?
In the end, the EOL illustrates the great diversity of life that exists on this planet. But it is also a sad reminder that their numbers often read like the stockmarket during a depression. Maybe we’ll manage to save most of them. Or maybe in the future there will only be humans, rats, and cockroaches; Frankly, a food chain consisting of merely those three species doesn’t sound very appealing even with 11 secret herbs and spices.
So next time you see those guys in koala suits asking for donations, spare a thought to those unfortunate animals that had been hit by the ugly stick. Maybe THEY need a koala suit before people would actually care about them.
Links:
The Australian Marine Conservation Society has a Sustainable Seafood Guide [link] but it’s NOT free – those cheapskates. For those in the US, the Monterey Bay aquarium has a guide here, and it’s FREE: Seafood watch (US) [link]
the IUCN Red List [link]
the EOL [link]
WWF [link] – nothing much on the slimy and hideous, though
