Collection 2: "Hope for Animals and Their World" by Jane Goodall

Cockroaches are loathed.

Bees pollinate the vast majority of our food crops, and the current devastation of hives in North America and Europe is causing real anxiety.

They feed on carrion—the flesh of dead animals.

One reason for the species’ precipitous decline across its historical range, in addition to habitat loss and fragmentation, is possibly connected with the extinction of the passenger pigeon and the greatly reduced number of black-footed ferrets and prairie chickens, all of which provided carrion of ideal size.

One reason for the species’ precipitous decline across its historical range, in addition to habitat loss and fragmentation, is possibly connected with the extinction of the passenger pigeon and the greatly reduced number of black-footed ferrets and prairie chickens, all of which provided carrion of ideal size.

The answer, stressed by Lou and Jack, is an emphatic yes.

And by burying carcasses underground, this industrious beetle helps keep flies and ants from reaching epidemic proportions.

Once the carcass is safely underground, the beetles strip it of feathers or hair and then coat it with...secretions, which help to preserve the flesh that will serve as food for their young.

Both mother and father carry the larvae to their “larder.”

In about two weeks, the sated beetle larvae burrow into the soil to pupate, and the parents move on.

These are placed in an Igloo cooler, since the beetles cannot survive undue heat.

After a while, though, birds such as crows and seagulls began to recognize that an orange flag represented a food source, and began to dig up the beetles’ carrion, so the recovery team is now also placing a mesh screen over each
brood to protect it.

And “creepy-crawlies,” although they may elicit fear and horror, hold a real fascination for them.

Certainly during my short early-morning meeting with Lou and Jack, I had been transported to a different and utterly fascinating world, where giant insects nurture their young and tiny mites, in exchange for a free meal and a ride to the restaurant, rid their benefactors of their competitors.