Word: megafauna
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Tigers are what is known as charismatic megafauna - the sort of big, well-known animal that tends to be good marker of a jungle's ecological health - and green groups are taking advantage of the Chinese new year to press for better protection. They face a battle on many fronts: tigers are threatened by deforestation, hunting and the illegal trade of their bones and other parts, which are used in some forms of traditional Chinese medicine, mostly for consumers in Asia. (See the top 10 invasive species...
After we pull our land rover off the track to watch a pair of leopards, I ask my two safari guides what animal they'd be most excited to see. I'm thinking elephants, lions, rhinos - the charismatic megafauna that attract tourists from across the world. Their answer: aardvarks and porcupines, the reclusive nocturnal residents of Kenya's Masai Mara. "I took care of cattle on the Mara when I was a boy," says Jackson Tinka, 21. "So I've seen a lot of wildlife...
...species noticed by at least a few of the six and a half billion humans who relentlessly press their dominance on every corner of the natural world. Indeed, much of modern wildlife conservation has been built around the idea, pushed by the naturalist George Schaller, of promoting "charismatic megafauna" - awe-inspiring star animals, like the Siberian tiger or the African rhino, the species that draw crowds to zoos. The thinking is that by getting the public to support the protection of these animals, the wildlife that exists beneath them - the sort of animals most of us would pass...
...ocher-covered bones of the world's oldest known ritual burial, Mungo Man, were discovered in 1974, and since then more than 150 human burials - most of them more than 10,000 years old - have been unearthed, as well as shell-strewn middens, hearths and the bones of extinct megafauna. Webb, professor of Australian Studies at Bond University, has studied the area for more than 20 years. "I've traveled all over Australia," he says, "and I don't know of anywhere that even comes up to the ankles of this place...
...provided a great overview of the problems facing all big-cat populations. If we can protect the megafauna, we can also protect whole ecosystems. And if we can't, then what about our future? LINDA REIFSCHNEIDER St. Louis...