I loudly applaud the recent airing of Spring Watch for their delve into our native invertebrates micro world, but time and time again, when it comes to public vote for 'your favourite and iconic British wildlife' its mammals who feature heavily, a splattering of plants and if we are lucky, a lone token invertebrate. The token is always terrestrial, normally an insect and particularly brightly coloured. Why?
This observation has sparked debate amongst many of us who champion the great legions of the boneless. The fact is that out of all the animal life based on this planet, (not taking into account we are still discovering as well as loosing species here), over a staggering 80% are invertebrates with a meagre 0.4% of vertebrates. Yes, that is a point four. With the invertebrates tirelessly recycling, fertilising, pollinating, purifying and providing a base food source for most ecosystems, you would think they at least deserve a better shout out. What is even more disturbing is that while our terrestrial invertebrates get their occasional foot in the 'favourite wildlife' door, our aquatic, both freshwater and marine, are shamelessly ignored. 1 lone oyster filtrates 124 litres of water every 24 hours - we have already lost 85% of our global oyster reefs. With alien species invasion, habitat degradation, over exploitation, pollution and flow modification our aquatic invertebrates are in plight. Yet we happily munch away on muscles, cockles, prawns and even the odd lobster without so much as a nod in their direction. Please do not forget that its the zoo plankton and krill that keep the mightiest of all our mammals in the sea, quite literally, afloat. Freshwater species are in a similar sticky situation with a multitude of threats bearing down on them. The blue flash of a Kingfisher can be quite rightly considered as iconic, but without the tiniest and rather bland coloured invertebrates propping up its food web, a quick flash might well be the last thing we see.
Back on land lets put a value on invertebrates. A value we all understand, monetary. Research at Reading University has shown that pollinators are worth at least £510 million to the UKs agriculture. Insects like bees, beetles, flies and moths pollinate 84% of our crops. That's our food. Forget iPhones, iPods and iPads - without the basic necessity of food, we are out of the game. The iconic dawn chorus would be a pretty short and quiet affair too without invertebrates. Imagine no brownie points on valentines day because your florist can not source the suitably over-priced blooms. It's out of our country, but high on my particular list of needs, is the cocoa bean tree thankfully pollinated by midges.
So what's happening, why are our precious invertebrates simply not courting the adoring medias coverage when it comes to popularity votes? Is it that we share the same mammalian class with the cute fluffiness and fur? Do we associate fellow wild mammals mannerisms with those of our much loved domestic pets? Ladybirds and butterflies are put forward as 'worth a vote' most probably because of their agreeable prettiness, rather like dolphins with their smiley faces, but are we that shallow and superficial? When it comes to invertebrates it would appear so. Described fittingly as the 'Spineless Backbone' of our planet recently, we need to increase the PR status of our life support system thats busily making our world a better place. I decided to run my own survey where I asked a diverse and extensive group of school children, age range from 4 to 11, what word they associated with invertebrates, bugs and I loathe to use the term myself, creepy-crawlies. The most common word I got back was 'sting'. The biggest majority of our population will complete their lives without ever experiencing the misfortune of being stung. Even with their bright warning stripes and colours, the sting is only used as the last ditched attempt to defend themselves against us. Sadly, it appears though we still nationally and collectively believe wasps and bees are out to hunt us down.
So what is the point of my ramble with regard to the iconic British wildlife vote? It is this. I am not by any means trying to belittle the importance of our magnificent mammals, birds or plants but simply asking to level the playing field and give our invertebrates the coverage they deserve. None of us want to see species of mammals become rarer and slip out of our sight, but I can't help thinking that without the invertebrates, the slip would be a down right vertical slide.
We have many species that are 'public friendly' other than just the ladybird- although it rightly assumes it place in polls. Our endangered Stag Beetle, Rams Horn-Snail and White-Clawed Crayfish to name the mere tip of a colossal iceberg floating in todays uncertain waters. All are noteworthy and justifiably iconic.
Perhaps when the media, decide to run a poll in the future to determine our iconic wildlife, a few more boxes can be ticked for invertebrates and the token becomes less of a gesture.
