beyond the cute
and the fluffy
We see insects in fleeting glimpses. They seem to teleport out of sight and disappear into miniature frames of perception. They are almost uncanny in their constant invisible presence, the crucial ecosystem effects of their lives masked by the microscopic level on which they operate. Monarch butterflies, as an aesthetically striking species, are likely to get attention where other insects that are equally important to ecosystem health do not.
Insects are more at risk of biodiversity loss partly because of their spectral presence in our lives. Larger animals, like mammals and fish, are visible at a glance, forming a visually familiar part of our worlds. It’s easy to run a conservation campaign around cute, fluffy mammals but insects often end up being swept under the rug
consider the polar bear
Conservation campaigns often centre around large to medium sized animals which are easy to make into stuffed toys and sold as physical representations of the campaign. But this strategy can lead to the symbol of the animal becoming more important than protecting the biodiverse ecosystem it lives in. In an Arctic Today article, Leanne Clare, senior manager of communications of the WWF’s Arctic Program explained that the real challenge comes from turning attachment to an animal into attachment to the whole region that animal is a part of. She mentions polar bears, which are not under imminent threat of extinction despite how the constant slew of campaigns to ‘save the polar bear’ would make it seem.
This might not seem like a big deal but it can have real consequences. Indigenous communities who often clash with polar bears, accuse the big environmentalist groups of protecting plants and animals while they ignore the needs of indigenous communities for hunting, food and protection against the bears. These communities are part of the arctic ecosystem and their activities are essential in maintaining balance. Indeed saving the polar bear has itself become symbolic of stopping global warming, as if conserving the creatures alone is enough to stop ice melt and sea level rise.
On a fundamental level we have a taxonomic bias towards cute animals. Zoologist Nathan Yaussy writes that it’s “hard-wired into our brains” to like animals that look like babies. Properties like big eyes, round heads, and short snouts make us think that an animal is cute enough to save. They must also show relatable behavioural qualities, like strength, cunning or beauty, to illicit the desire to protect them. Conversely negative associations with ‘slimy’ amphibians, ‘disease-ridden’ rodents and ‘annoying’ insects make us less likely to care about them. Some experts even argue that the money spent on the conservation of cute animals like pandas, could be better used elsewhere on species that hold more value in ecosystems and food chains. This is a controversial opinion, especially as conservationists often use the money donated to save popular animals in order to repair general ecosystem health and benefit less popular species. But the intentions of that view can probably be translated to ‘no animals should be favoured because of how they look’ - a message that we can all get behind!
insects and animal marketing
Conservationists argue that marketing campaigns through megafauna is actually the best way to get the greatest total amount in donations for a struggling species. They argue that money they receive will go to the preservation of other animals more in need, not just the ones we donate to. Apart from being dishonest to donors, this technique also has unintended consequences including encouraging young conservationists to gravitate towards popular animals rather than those in need.
The popular animal bias hints at an element of environmental justice that is sometimes overlooked by conservationists: we are not saving the environment because of how it looks, we are saving it because of its inherent value. All living things have value no matter how they appear, hierarchies in the animal kingdom only distort the mission of conservationism. Rare plants are often prioritised over common flora by conservation groups but this approach fails to acknowledge that biodiversity decline is happening too quickly to focus on individual species over whole ecosystems. Species that seem too prevalent to be worried about can be wiped out very quickly if they are not protected properly.
This is particularly true for insects. In 2017, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed 343 insect species as endangered, meaning that 5.7% of all evaluated insect species are endangered. A 2019 study reported that over 40 per cent of insect species could go extinct in the next few decades, with butterflies, bees and dung beetles most affected. These sort of facts are important but they are not the most effective way to get people excited about insect conservation. Caring for insects requires the sort of holistic thinking that recognises their importance and value beyond our usual standards of relating to animals on an aesthetic or behavioural level. Even the ant colony, which works together in metronomic harmony towards communal goals, is somehow less relatable than the fat panda that farts and falls out of its tree.
And so we have to approach relating to insects from a different angle. We can all relate to the flowers they pollinate, the food they provide for our favourite fluffy creatures and the comforting hum of insect activity that greets our sense in spring. Perhaps their most invaluable quality is the unseen labours of insects which include:
• Cycling of nutrients in soil
• Pollination of plants
• Seed dispersal
• Soil structure and fertility maintenance
• Control of the populations of other organisms
• Functioning as a major food source for other animals.
These functions are essential to life and prove their material value beyond the obvious intrinsic value that all life on earth holds. So if we want to ‘save the pandas’, we also have to save the insects that create the environments that pandas and our other favourite animals need to survive and thrive.
