From giant pandas to koalas, the species used to grab our attention are often cute and cuddly. In other words, they make great stuffed toys for kids.
“There’s never a stuffed blobfish,” quips Simon Watt, a biologist, comedian, and founder of the Ugly Animal Appreciation Society, a website that highlights underappreciated species.
With their expressive eyes and childlike appearance, many stereotypically “cute” species tap into the parts of our brains that have evolved to protect babies, Watt says. And while this isn’t a bad thing—protecting pandas is 100 percent worthwhile, Watt emphasizes—it leaves out the large portion of the animal kingdom that doesn’t give us the warm fuzzies.
“Most animals aren’t cute,” he says.
Conservationists working to preserve those animals perceived as frightening or unattractive have an even harder battle.
“Most people just know about Jaws,” says shark biologist and National Geographic Young Explorer Deborah Santos de Azevedo. Changing their beliefs—and reminding them sharks are a vital part of our oceans—is a big part of her work. (Learn surprising ways sharks keep the oceans healthy.)
Here’s how these Young Explorers are helping to show that the entire natural world merits protecting.
Cárol Mariana Sierra Durán feeds a lesser long-nosed bat, an important pollinator in Colombia that feeds on agave nectar. After capturing the bats for study, scientists give the mammals a solution of agave syrup with water as a jolt of energy. Durán wears a mask to protect the bat from contracting pathogens that can pass from people to wildlife, such as COVID-19.
Photograph By by Ángel Torres
Bats as pest control
A lunchroom poster at her high school in Colombia sparked Cárol Sierra Durán’s interest in bats. “I realized I was 17, and I had never seen the face of a bat before,” she says.
At first, Durán thought that her ignorance was unusual. Once she realized how little even many scientists knew about the basic biology of bats, Durán was hooked.
“Most people, when I tell them that I work with bats, their reaction is a weird face. Of all the animals in the world, why would I choose to work with these weird, nocturnal creatures?” says Durán. “So the first conversation is amazing because you see their faces change.” (Why bats are the real superheroes of the animal world.)
Durán found that explaining bats’ prodigious insect-eating abilities boosted buy-in from local communities. Bats, she told farmers, are a natural form of pest control that can’t be replicated—even with the most expensive insecticides.
For her master’s degree research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and her National Geographic project, Durán surveyed the types of insect-eating bats that frequented Mexico’s rice fields, such as gray sac-winged bats, as well as calculated the economic value of the ecosystem services they provided.
Durán is continuing her work as a Ph.D. student to understand the farming practices that promote bat health.
Lions in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve (pictured) are sometimes killed in retaliation for hunting livestock.
Photograph By CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES, National Geographic
A guiding light for lions
Like many Kenyan Maasai boys, Richard Turere began helping to protect his family’s livestock from nearby rhinos, lions, and cheetahs when he was just 9. Many locals, including his father, used lethal methods to deter predators from their livestock.
Turere wanted to avoid harming lions, which are declining and considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. So he tried everything from kerosene lamps to scarecrows, but the felines quickly learned that these were harmless. The only thing that worked was regular patrols with a flashlight after dark.
After dismantling some discarded household electronics, Turere built his first Lion Light by connecting some LED bulbs to car indicator flashers. The current iteration involves a series of randomly flashing smartphone-size lights powered by a solar panel. The constantly changing pattern of flashes tricks the lions into thinking there’s a person there. (Read more about the challenges of living with lions.)
“At first, everyone thought I was crazy because I was just a kid and I was always walking around with wires,” Turere says. “Now they see Lion Lights as something that helps keep their animals safe.”
Turere, who became a National Geographic Young Explorer in 2020, recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the African Leadership University. He’s now building up teams of Lion Light ambassadors to help educate communities about the lights and the importance of conservation, including in neighboring countries.
“It’s been amazing to see this project grow and spread through my community and across Africa,” he says.
Puppy-dog sharks
As soon as Deborah Santos de Azevedo tells people she researches sharks, she’s asked if she’s ever been bitten.
“Not even close,” she laughs. It’s the perfect opportunity for her to talk about her favorite lemon sharks, which aren’t at all dangerous to people.
“They’re like the golden retrievers of sharks because they’re so curious. They have no sense of personal space—they’re constantly bumping into you like, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’” Azevedo says.
Her path working with sharks didn’t come easily. As a first-generation college student and immigrant living in Florida, Azevdeo couldn’t afford regular trips to the Bahamas, where lemon sharks give birth. (Read why lemon sharks return to their birthplace.)
So she began finding research opportunities locally with the American Shark Conservancy, where she conducted surveys to study lemon sharks—a species that IUCN lists as vulnerable to extinction—living in and around Florida.
In her work as a Young Explorer, Azevedo has been working with local communities in citizen science projects to better understand what lemon sharks need to thrive.
It’s also a chance for Azevedo to give other young people like herself the opportunity to get in the water—and dissipate their fears of sharks.
“We got people who had only ever been in a pool to swim with the sharks.”
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