insanely depressing how “cool” looking species are waaaayyy more likely to receive funding for conservation efforts because anything that appears bland or dull to us is not worthy of life apparently
no but you’re right! or why white tigers at big cat rescues receive 100x the sponsorships of “normal” cats. if you’re an animal you have to prove yourself to have value to live in this world
This makes me think of Clams.
I live in Tennessee, where there are a number of regionally extinct animals like grey wolves and cougars. We have bald eagles. Conservation programs talk about bobcats and an initiative to re-introduce the red wolf.
Most of our endangered species are river clams that probably play vital roles in keeping our river systems healthy.
not mentioning that the current red wolf breeding population is sooooo fucked that those plans are probably wayyyyy off
i'm Indian, and conservation efforts here for rhinos, elephants, lions and tigers have yielded excellent efforts
however river bustards and the gangetic dolphins and many other species, which also have a big role in keeping our ecosystem healthy are mostly neglected. In fact
THERE ARE ONLY 50 GREAT INDIAN BUSTARDS LEFT IN THE WILD.
50. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. JUST 50 BUSTARDS. IN A LAND OF 7 MILLION KILOMETRE SQUARES JUST 50 BUSTARDS. RAJASTHAN, WHICH IS THEIR HABITAT, HAS AN AREA OF 342 THOUSAND SQUARE KILOMETRES, AND JUST 50 BUSTARDS.
apparently animal lives also matter only if they are pretty enough.
we are reintroducing 50 cheetahs cause we along with the brits hunted our own species to extinction, but we can't even we bothered to take care of that which we have.