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Charismatic megafauna are large animal species
Megafauna

The term megafauna has two distinct meanings in the biological sciences. The less commonly found meaning is of any animal which can be seen with the unaided eye, in contrast to microfauna....
 with widespread popular appeal that environmental activists use to achieve conservation
Conservation movement

The conservation movement also known as nature conservation is a political, social and, to some extent, scientific movement that seeks to protect natural resources including plant and animal species as well as their habitat for the future....
 goals well beyond just those species. Examples include the Giant Panda
Giant Panda

The Giant Panda is a mammal classified in the bear family , native to central-western and southwestern China. The Giant Panda was previously thought to be a member of the Procyonidae family....
, the Bengal Tiger
Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tiger, or Royal bengal tiger , is a subspecies of tiger primarily found in India and Bangladesh. They are also found in Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and southern Tibet....
, and the Blue Whale
Blue Whale

The Blue Whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales . At up to 32.9 metres in length and 172 metric tonnes or more in weight, it is the largest whale and the largest living animal and is believed to be the largest organism ever to have existed....
.

Environmental activists and ecotourism
Ecotourism

Ecotourism is a form of tourism, that appeals to ecologically and socially conscious individuals. Generally speaking, ecotourism focuses on volunteering, personal growth and learning new ways to live on the planet....
 seek to use the leverage provided by charismatic and well known species to achieve more subtle and far-reaching goals in species and biodiversity conservation. By directing public attention to the diminishing numbers of Giant Panda due to habitat loss, for example, conservation groups can raise support for the protection of the panda and for the entire ecosystem
Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....
 on which it depends.






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Encyclopedia


Charismatic megafauna are large animal species
Megafauna

The term megafauna has two distinct meanings in the biological sciences. The less commonly found meaning is of any animal which can be seen with the unaided eye, in contrast to microfauna....
 with widespread popular appeal that environmental activists use to achieve conservation
Conservation movement

The conservation movement also known as nature conservation is a political, social and, to some extent, scientific movement that seeks to protect natural resources including plant and animal species as well as their habitat for the future....
 goals well beyond just those species. Examples include the Giant Panda
Giant Panda

The Giant Panda is a mammal classified in the bear family , native to central-western and southwestern China. The Giant Panda was previously thought to be a member of the Procyonidae family....
, the Bengal Tiger
Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tiger, or Royal bengal tiger , is a subspecies of tiger primarily found in India and Bangladesh. They are also found in Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and southern Tibet....
, and the Blue Whale
Blue Whale

The Blue Whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales . At up to 32.9 metres in length and 172 metric tonnes or more in weight, it is the largest whale and the largest living animal and is believed to be the largest organism ever to have existed....
.

Environmental activists and ecotourism
Ecotourism

Ecotourism is a form of tourism, that appeals to ecologically and socially conscious individuals. Generally speaking, ecotourism focuses on volunteering, personal growth and learning new ways to live on the planet....
 seek to use the leverage provided by charismatic and well known species to achieve more subtle and far-reaching goals in species and biodiversity conservation. By directing public attention to the diminishing numbers of Giant Panda due to habitat loss, for example, conservation groups can raise support for the protection of the panda and for the entire ecosystem
Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....
 on which it depends. (The Giant Panda is portrayed in the logo of the World Wide Fund for Nature
World Wide Fund for Nature

The World Wide Fund for Nature is an Internationalism non-governmental organization for the Conservation biology, Environmental science and Restoration ecology of the environment , formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in the United States and Canada....
.)

An editorial in The Economist
The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international relations publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in London....
 magazine suggests that charismatic megafauna are particularly subject to taxonomic inflation
Lumpers and splitters

Lumping and splitting refers to a well known problem in any discipline which has to place individual examples into rigorously defined categories....
, in that taxonomists will declare a subspecies
Subspecies

In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
 to be a species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 because of the advocacy benefits of a unique species, rather than because of new scientific evidence. Another reason for inflating species may be the public's willingness to identify with species as sold through the ecotourism industry. In the public perception, ecotourism may be about seeing species, and the number of unique species increases the tourism biodiversity and value
Value (economics)

The economic value of a good or service has puzzled economists since the beginning of the discipline. First, economists tried to estimate the value of a good to an individual alone, and extend that definition to goods which can be exchanged....
 of an area.

Beginning early in the twentieth century, efforts to reintroduce extirpated charismatic megafauna to ecosystems have been an interest of a number of private and non government conservation organizations. Populations of species have been reintroduced from captive breeding programs (California condor
California Condor

The California Condor is a North American species of bird in the New World vulture family Cathartidae and the largest North American land bird....
) and from zoo populations (the European Bison
Wisent

File:Bison bonasus right eye close-up.jpgThe wisent , or European bison , is a bison species and the heaviest surviving Terrestrial animal in Europe....
 to Poland's Bialowieza Forest
Bialowieza Forest

Bialowieza Primaeval Forest, known as Belaveskaya Pushcha or Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus and Media:Puszcza Bialowieska.ogg in Poland, is an ancient woodland straddling the border between Belarus and Poland, located north of Brest, Belarus....
). These and other reintroductions of charismatic megafauna, such as Przewalski's Horse
Przewalski's Horse

Przewalski's Horse is a rare and endangered subspecies of Wild Horse native to the steppes of central Asia. At one time extinct in the wild, it has been reintroduced to its native habitat in Mongolia at the Khustain Nuruu National Park, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve and Khomiin Tal....
 to its native Mongolia
Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
, have been to areas of limited, and often patchy, range compared to the historic ranges of the fauna.

Further reading


See also

  • Flagship species
    Flagship species

    A flagship species is a species chosen to represent an environmentalism cause, such as an ecosystem in need of Conservation ecology. These species are chosen for their endangered species, attractiveness or distinctiveness in order to best engender support and acknowledgment from the public at large....


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