Harmful or Helpful? Animals with a Bad Reputation

The comic debunks ancient but unfair perceptions people have about many animals. Are wolves and foxes, bears and tigers, as well as snakes, spiders, and biting insects really that harmful? And why do they have such a bad reputation?

Jill McAnyo explains to us what has long been known to biologists and nature conservationists. Yes, there are dangerous animals. There are problematic ones. But harmful ones? No! Every biological species, every living organism plays its ecological role. And these finely-tuned natural mechanisms have been working from century to century... Until some extraordinary event disrupts the ecological balance.

In the last few thousand years, humans have exterminated entire species of animals, deforested, plowed up steppe lands, and changed the courses of rivers, causing animals to go extinct as they lose their habitats. They introduce invasive species of animals and plants that have arrived from afar and threaten local ecosystems. The way we address these and other ecological problems determines the ecological reputation of our species—homo sapiens. We really don’t want our reputation to be a bad one.