Connecticut Green Living

A study published today, April 6, in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment examines a novel twist on an old idea: that beauty is more than skin deep. The authors have shown how one should take charisma into account when studying and managing invasive species. Such interlopers are the second largest cause of biodiversity loss. Transferred to new environments by human activity, they become competitors or predators of local species, which are often unable to withstand the incursion. An international research team, involving two French laboratories, have evidenced an aspect of these invasions: species charisma. The popularity of a species and its perception by society and the media, they concur, determines how it is introduced and what impact it has on its new surroundings. In Italy, for example, the arrival of the popular North American grey squirrel threatens the existence of the native red squirrel. "Charisma is used in the literature to refer to the “attractive...

"We can't take a step outside and see what we are doing, just like orangutans can't. -- Dr. Birutė Galdikas, world-renowned orangutan expert ..... "The Trimates - three women who went to live among our closest relatives" sets the tone, the narration harkening decades back to when bravery and curiosity were more commonly deemed male traits. The term was coined by anthropologist Louis Leakey for three of the most famous champions of studying primates in their natural environments, Drs. Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas. In 2020, lauding female scientists is more popular but not necessarily de rigueur . That's only one reason why "She Walks with Apes" is important. Airing on Earth Day's 50th anniversary April 22, this compelling documentary narrated by Sandra Oh concerns three women who embarked on lifelong journeys to live amongst humankind's closest relative, the ape. The stories of Goodall, the late Fossey and Galdikas ...