biodiversity--RFI (1 Viewer)

[Surreybirder]

I'm writing an essay (only 1,300 words) on biodiversity.
I'd like one or two examples of creatures that are:
a) fascinating
b) perform some vital function (either for mankind or in the survival of an ecosystem) AND
c) endangered.
It doesn't matter how small or spectacular they are.
I'd really appreciate it if anyone can come up with a good suggestion so that I can use it as the launching point of my essay.
(In case you are wondering, I am in favour of maintaining as much biodiversity as possible.)

Of course, if anyone wants to put forward any suggestions of useful arguments I can use, that would be appreciated too--but I should do at least some of the work myself!

Many thanks!

 

[birdman]

The best "argument in favour" of biodiversity that I ever came across, was one where the extinction on a species (any species) was likened to the removal of a rivet from an aeroplane - posing the question of how many rivets would you be happy were removed and still fly the plane.

Totally unscientific, of course, but to me at least vivdly expresses the importance of every species.

 

[seb_seb]

explain about species` roles in habitats....and habitats role in the ecosystem and environment. How mice feed owls....otters eat fish...and trees give oxygen.

 

[Surreybirder]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I'm not limited to the UK, Spar.
There are some fascinating roles played by seemingly insignificant creatures... I believe, for example, that dung beetles enable the great African savanas (with all their diversity of life-forms) to exist--without them, all the dung would not get dispersed and the savanna would not be 'composted'. So elephants need dung beetles, sort of thing.

 

[Surreybirder]

In case anyone's interested, I've now had my article published......
See HERE
The article is in two parts.

It starts.......

OUR HAND IN THE FUTURE


What can be done to avert mass extinction on a scale not seen since the age of the dinosaurs, asks Kenneth Noble

Last summer I saw an extraordinary sight. A dunnock, a bird about the size of a sparrow, was feeding a young cuckoo which was about eight times as big as itself. European cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other species. Each female cuckoo has evolved to exploit a particular species, often laying eggs that bear a striking resemblance to the foster mother’s own. When the cuckoo egg hatches, the fledgling ejects any other eggs and young from the nest and then makes as much noise as a whole brood of normal chicks so that the host parents are stimulated to feed it as much as they would several of their own young. Meanwhile the parent cuckoos are making their way back to a comparatively easy life in Africa.