Hi everyone!
Hope everyone is doing well in Week 6. Let me give you this week’s motivational quote to keep you going!
“Don’t let your past dictate your future.” – Chris Mentillo
My next topic is about speciesism. Like racism in humans, speciesism is another form of discrimination which some species are not worthy of their existence (Animal Ethics, 2020)[1].
From a survey I created, 33 respondents took part in it. The purpose of the survey is to determine which animal group has the most bias and whether everyone has the same mindset of eradicating such groups. One section of the survey depicts how the respondents would choose their favourite animal group among the six groups (as shown in the pictures below). It was interesting to see that the mammals were the most preferable group amongst the people, whilst the fishes and birds were ranked as the next two preferable groups, respectively. It was unsurprising that the insects were ranked the most undesirable group.
How the people rank their favourites among the six distinct groups (Source: ©Lee Wee Meng)
Notably, I narrowed down to see what the respondents would say about their preference for conservation towards their least preferable group (see below). As expected, 9 of the 11 respondents who chose not to conserve their disliked species describe that insects do not benefit the human population. Surprisingly, despite their ugliness and the fear insects give, about 9 of the 15 respondents who chose to conserve their disliked species say that insects need to be conserved for their contribution to balance in ecosystems.
Source: ©Lee Wee Meng
In fact, cockroaches were being mentioned in the survey numerous times. Natalie (2012)[2] mentioned that cockroaches aid in the nitrogen cycle in the ecosystem by breaking down living matter and excrete poop, which will be utilised by the soil as humus to grow new plants, as supported by a cockroach expert, Kambhampati. Although we perceived cockroaches as pests, our bias on the entire species could imply 1% of more than 5000 known species that roam our homes (Palmer B., 2013)[3]. Although they look creepy, they could be heroes to the forests!
In the next post, I will share a case study with my recent zoo trip to Night Safari.
So what do you think? Is it worth to have the existence of cockroaches and other insects?
In the next mind,
Wee Meng
Hi Wee Meng,
I like how you keep us going with the motivational quotes every week, that’s a great positive mindset.
Comparing racism and speciesism is an interesting take. For sure, we tend to judge the importance of a species based on it’s appearance. I do wonder why we have such a bias against the appearance of insects though.
Looking forward to hearing about your trip to Night Safari in the next post!
Hi Jia Wei,
Thanks for the feedback about the quotes. Yes, one of the key features in my blog is having them to give an extra motivational boost for my readers.
If you want to find out more about why we have a strong bias against insects compared to other groups of animals, you can copy this link right here (Link: https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/our-modern-plagues/get-thing-away-me-why-humans-hate-bugs/)
In summary, Dr Jeffrey Lockwood explained in a few factors. One, our evolution since the dawn of humans made us aware of their existence. Specifically, our primal instincts already made us aware of their existence. Secondly, in the modern age, we are mindful of our levels of hygiene more over the years. So for instance, like cockroaches and mosquitoes, we tend to fear them because of the disease vectors that they carry, hence they don’t give us benefits but instead fall ill to these tiny creatures.
Cheers,
Wee Meng