photo from: Julia Malakie/APTiger Swallowtail butterflies at The Butterfly Place in Mass.
"We’re always hearing about the animals we need to save, but have you ever wondered why? While we certainly don’t want to be responsible for destroying any species, it turns out that in some cases, if we do allow animal populations to suffer, we’ll also be hurting ourselves. Here are five animals that humans can’t live without." That comes from an article on findingdulcinea.com, and it reveals these five mystery animals we need to keep around.
Besides the usual domestication of pets, and the whole slaughtering for food deal, animals are integral part of our world, both physically and culturally. However, with the on-going issue of endangered species, it seems like the animals associated with our culture are fairing much better than the actual animals we want to protect. For example, animals make great characters for movies, TV shows, and books;additionally, there are a select few that have become an integral part of holidays (ie: Easter bunny, Christmas reindeer, and the obvious Thanksgiving turkey.
Additionally, they make great advertising tools, but this can sometimes get exploited. Everyone knows about the Geico gecko and the Chick-fil-a cows. While these are acceptable incorporations, there are some companies that need to chill on the characters- I'm talking about you Kelloggs. Every cereal these people come up with seems like it has an obnoxious animal to help sell it to world's youth. There's Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes, Sam the Fruit Loops tucan, and that terrible Honey Smacks frog.
Every once in a while animals even break into technology and machinery. The rare ones get chosen as a car name (Jaguar), and even Mac picked up the leopard as part of its software operating system, the Mac OS-X Leopard. I don't think it is far fetched to say society relates better to the jaguar with an engine than the rare ones in the wild. There are always going to be people fighting to save the whales and pandas, but there are five animals-often overlooked-that we literally can't live without.
It also says something about our culture that younger generations are becoming more and more acquainted with learning about animals via the internet or claymation movies. I think it is sad to think that eventually children might not have the opportunity to see a live panda or bald eagle, but younger generations are also becoming more and more content to live their lives through a computer monitor.
In any regard, here are the five animals we need to survive, they all make sense but you wouldn't necessarily think of these five as the essential survival tools!
1. bees- essential to the food supply because they are responsible for 80% of insect pollination
2. bats- they eat insects, pollinate crops, and fertilize crops
3. butterflies- they can forecast the future of climate change
4. fish- they can actually combat climate change
5. worms- compost trash we throw out
Hard to believe we need the one on the right more.
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