...AND THE UGLY!

In this article I will be looking at the creatures conservationist will not be asking you to save for future generations. Just so that there is no muddle about this, let's look at the sort of creatures that will be receiving support from these people.

Most people will not go for more than two or three days at a time before someone pushes a tin in their faces and asks them to give money to support beautiful animals. These animals will be the sort that wildlife photographers love: tigers, elephants, whales, dolphins, etc. You will recognise these creatures because they are big animals, there have almost certainly been at least a dozen documentaries about them and they are the sort that children recognise from a very young age.

Well, today, I am asking you to defy all these conventions and support an ugly animal.

The Naturally Ugly

The right to survive should not be dependent on beauty. Who is to say a warthog is less worthy than an elephant or a hyena less worthy than a tiger?

One of the things that particularly impressed me when I volunteered with the People's Trust for Endangered Species was their choice of endangered animal. Charities were being asked to adopt and draw up survival plans for individual creatures. Many of the larger organisations were practically cutting each other's throats in an effort to obtain one of the few truly photogenic mammals on the list. PTES chose the stag beetle - a large and rather devilish looking beetle. Fortunately, British national papers, being what they are, were impressed by the novelty and wrote feature articles. Soon people started looking out for these creatures and leaving log piles in their gardens in an effort to help them.

Those of Bad Reputation

There are other creatures who, while not necessarily particularly ugly, have the sort of reputations that preceed them. Think of the stories you know and you will soon guess who these are.

No fairytale is complete without the wicked wolf - a swallower of grandmothers, an eater of children and a gobbler up of defenseless little pigs. I have heard that there has never been an authenticated attack of wolves on human beings but still these creatures are viewed with distrust. Yellowstone Park has to fight this prejudice to keep their wolves and shepherds in Spain still hunt down she wolves with cubs in order to destroy them.

And what about bats? In truth they look remarkably like mice with wings; in stories, however they are the cohorts of wicked witches and the alta-egos of vampires. So, let me dispel a few myths. These animals seldom drink blood, they do not tangle in people's hair - Why should they? - and most of the witches I know (albeit not particularly wicked witches) have as much to do with bats as the rest of us. I agree that there is a real danger from vampires. I was once nearly bored to death by a Goth who insisted on talking about these creatures interminably. However, I believe the chances of a flying mammal wanting to get intimately aquainted with my neck are pretty remote.

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