How Virtual Hordes of Iconic Animals Could Hurt Us All
There may be a downside to being surrounded by images of charismatic animals: It could warp the way we think about their wild populations.
ByCecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
Published July 26, 2018
• 6 min read
Widespread depictions of animals in pop culture—in advertisements, movies, photos, and toy stores—could actually be hurting the animals’ survival chances in the wild, new research suggests.
So Courchamp and other researchers asked more than 4,500 people from 69 countries in an online survey to list the species they found most charismatic. They also considered information from school surveys, zoo webpages, and posters for animated movies.
In research published this month in the journal PLOS One, the researchers list the top 20 charismatic species. Most of the animals identified as charismatic are large, terrestrial mammals. Coming in first place were tigers, followed by lions, elephants, giraffes, panthers, pandas, cheetahs, polar bears, wolves, and gorillas. (See photos of more
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