Fouling Our Hive - Jeremy Barnes

"Every kind of organism," Mark Winston writes in the preface to Nature Wars: People v Pests, "has defining characteristics by which it can be identified as an entity different from all others." The upward turned wing tips of the turkey buzzards that fly overhead;  the square lip of the white rhinoceros that identifies it as a grazer, separate from its hook-lipped, browsing ‘black’ cousin; the flashes of color as a family of bluebirds takes flight; the tail of a fox so distinctive from a distance; the strong smell of the Matabele ants so vivid in my childhood memory; the bouquet of frangipani or brunfelsia flowers; the contrasting barks of different oaks species... each signals membership of a distinct group.

These characteristics have been misinterpreted, sometimes with fatal consequences…. Click for more