I came across this fun quiz where you have head-to-head challenges, and you can vote for your favourite taxon. The challenges include flora, fauna, and fungi.
Even things like slime molds, parasites, and The Scaly-foot Snail, which incorporates iron into its body, armouring itself with metal.
The winning taxon gets $10,000 to support its conservation.
If you could wave a magic wand and award the money to a neglected taxon on iNaturalist, which taxon would you choose, and why?
Here in Ontario we have a number of trees that are unfortunately endangered. The one I wish would get more love is the Fraxinus nigra, the Black Ash. Due to the invasive Emerald Ash-Borer it is being wiped out and is considered critically endangered.
These are some larger individuals I’ve seen in the wild. These days, they don’t often live to get this big!
There is a kind of sadness, almost a spiritual sadness, when we see these beautiful giants disappearing one by one. It happened with Dutch Elm Disease, and it will happen with other species.
Even though botanically there is no such thing as a tree!
And yet, I will continue to refer to them as such! ‘Tis a silly thing to say there’s no such thing as a tree.
Physically, I can see them out my window!
Scientifically, they have descriptions.
Philosophically, words are sounds we’ve given meaning to. I could say the same thing about vegetables. There’s no such thing. It’s just a term used to describe pieces of a plant we eat. Just like most people understand a tree is when you use the word!
Working in conservation I came to peace with the idea of “Hero species” many years back. Whilst my primary focus is invertebrates, there is limited love for them. However if a hero species gets funding, and that leads to protection of habitats, then its still a win.
I may get pushback if I call Kakapo the Pandas of NZ, but in many ways they are. Without significant work they would have been gone decades ago.
That clip of Sirroco shagging Stephen Frys camera mans head went viral many years back, because of how…“happy” sirroco was with his mating. However its not the most productive way to increase your species numbers, at least reproductively.
However places where Kakapo are managed will have a lot of effort to manage invasive species, and that will be a win for everything else there.
I slowly try and introduce more and more people to the world of harvestmen, but I know they arent getting any funding pretty much anywhere any time soon.
