In October 1995 a white rhino, recently arrived in England from South Africa, excreted an insect larva in its dung. Concerned about what this maggot was doing inside their endangered animal, the rhino's new owners called in entomologist Martin Hall of the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London to have a look. The larva pupated, hatched and Hall identified it as an endangered parasitic fly that feeds exclusively on rhinos. With neither rhino to dine on nor mate to breed with, it was left to die - one less parasite in the world. Only Hall mourned its passing. "Save the rhino maggot!" doesn't have much appeal as a conservation slogan. But the fact is that for every charismatic animal facing extinction there is an entire world of other species living on and inside it that may be equally endangered. From lice that suck blood at the surface and tapeworms that grow fat inside, to gut bacteria that aid digestion, almost every creature, especially in the wild, has hundreds of parasites that call it home. Many of these depend on one or two closely related host species for their survival: if their hosts become extinct, so do they. Yet, while the world's zoos spend vast amounts of time and money trying to save rhinos, pandas and the like, their parasites have never been considered... until now.
展开▼
