
Saving the ‘god of ugly things’: NZ battles to restore its rodent-sized insects - onychomys
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/saving-god-ugly-things-new-zealand-battles-bring-back-its-rodent-sized-insects
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AdeptusAquinas
The other morning I felt a scratching on the underside of my foot, while I had
my coffee. One of these things had crept into the lounge overnight - it was
its long antennae that were tickling my toes.

I am homeless now, but still worried the fire wasnt enough to kill it.

~~~
Area12
True story. Years ago, I was driving with my wife, and I was wearing an
oilskin rain hat. I felt a tickle, took the hat off and looked. Dropped the
hat on the floor. My wife asked what startled me. I said "let me stop first".
Parked the car. She was very worried by now. Said "weta in the hat". She
ejected out of her car door like 2001: Space Odyssey airlock scene. Good
times.

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gringoDan
> Young children start off fascinated by those insects, Watts says, "but when
> they get around 13 years old, something happens and they think [weta] are
> just horrible."

I admire the battle to save these creatures...it's hard enough to get people
on board that cute animals need to be saved. This has to be a real uphill
battle.

~~~
vanderZwan
> _" but when they get around 13 years old, something happens and they think
> [weta] are just horrible."_

Yes, that's when puberty hits and they really start caring more about what
they think _society_ tells them to consider good or bad, rather than about
what their own intuition tells them. It's tied to the development of theory of
mind.

Some people grow out of it later, and some are stuck with thinking the social
norms they know are the same as absolute truths. They are just interpretive
frames, of course.

~~~
qqqturing
Do you have studies or some data you can link ? I'm interested to read more.

~~~
vanderZwan
I base this on Michael J. Parsons five-stage model for _aesthetic_ development
from childhood to adulthood (and professional interpretation)[0]. But I think
that it applies here, since deciding whether insects are cute or gross is
_very_ much an aesthetic judgment.

Here[1] is for example a paper linking the work to theatre:

> _In the specific domain of visual art, Michael Parsons has proposed a
> developmental framework of aesthetic epistemology that describes how we move
> through stages or “sets of ideas” when discussing artworks’ subject matter,
> artists’ expressions, the forms and styles of visual media, and our
> judgments about each of these concepts. Like epistemologists, he marks the
> boundary of each stage by cognitive shifts in: 1) our primary mode of
> inquiry (i.e., perception, interpretation, and evaluation), 2) our
> expectations about the purposes of art, 3) our primary sources of artistic
> knowledge, and, 4) our primary criteria for making evaluative claims.
> Numerous studies in the visual arts have supported his framework with
> various populations, yet to date no one has offered an analogous
> epistemological framework for the domain of theatre._

One criticism of Parsons' model is that it's hierarchical in a way that
implicitly suggests that later stages are "better" than earlier stages (in
typical Western fashion). Then again, it is tied to cognitive development and
growing more mature so how could you _not_ end up with a staged one-follows-
the-development-of-the-other ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. For a more recent, more elaborate
model that is inspired by Parsons' model, see[2].

[0] Michael J. Parsons, _How We Understand Art: A Cognitive Developmental
Account of Aesthetic Experience_ (New York: Cambridge U P, 1987).

[1] Jeanne Klein, _Mapping aesthetic development and epistemological
understanding_ ,
[https://journals.ku.edu/jdtc/article/download/4376/4104](https://journals.ku.edu/jdtc/article/download/4376/4104)

[2]
[http://ppcms.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/usermounts/lederh7/1993-...](http://ppcms.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/usermounts/lederh7/1993-2004/LederBelkOebAugBJP2004.pdf)

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keithnz
It's a bit crazy in NZ due to the mamamal invasion, we have ~4000 endangered
species and we are only trying to do something about 300-400.

NZ was a weird place where there was virtually no mamamals just mostly birds
that didn't have many predators ( other than some giant eagles, where the best
response was to stay as still as possible). As a result much of our wildlife
have strong scents they use to find each other. Then the rodent mamamals came
along and the stinky native species are easy to find, and thir defence is to
stay as still as possible. So Carnage ensued.

One of our defences is a poison called 1080, which is a synthentic version of
a nartually occuring poison ( Sodium fluoroacetate ). It has a unique property
of being very toxic to mamamals and not very toxic to most NZ birds and
insects, so ideal for NZs situation. The poison itself is pretty brutal on
mamamals. But it has proven very effective. However, there is a kind of
"antivax" backlash to the poison and a lot of misinformation which has slowed
down the use of 1080. So we are living in a weird state of trying to protect
what we can while a vast amount of native species are getting annhilated.

~~~
cpeterso
This article about New Zealand's Predator-Free 2050 program was very
interesting. Such a large scale project, in terms of time and area.

"The nation wants to eradicate all invasive mammal predators by 2050. Gene-
editing technology could help — or it could trigger an ecological disaster of
global proportions."

[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/new-
zeal...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/new-zealand-
predator-free-2050-rats-gene-drive-ruh-roh/546011/?single_page=true)

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aidos
Such a brilliantly weird looking insect. When we were kids we used to love
reaching into the wood pile to pull out a weta. Not so keen on the idea
anymore!

~~~
ASalazarMX
Kids are weird. I used to look for a horned lizard, give it a tour of my
house, and release it if it looked stressed. If it didn't, I'd take it to
school in my shirt pocket. A big one in particular seemed happy as a pet and
lived permanently in our backyard.

I still find them pretty cool, but I don't think I'd chase another ever.
Specially now that I know they shoot blood when scared.

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dvtv75
Back in 1999, I was standing outside gazing at the stars, when I heard this
"tick tick tick" sound behind me. Turned around to find this tiny little weta,
maybe three centimeters long, jumping around while appearing to look at me.

My father's cats used to capture them by the dozens and bring them inside,
usually they'd kill them, but if I could tra pthe weta I'd take it outside and
put it near some bushes, so it could get away.

Fascinating little things.

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electricslpnsld
New Zealand has the coolest animals. The first time I saw a huge-ass Kakapo
(flightless parrot thing) on the southern island it scared the crap out of me.
The pigeons that eat partially fermented berries and get drunk are pretty
cool, and the Tui birds with two voice boxes are crazy to hear in the wild!
Also, Morepork, just because it is an awesome name for a creature.

~~~
csours
Douglas Adams on the Kakapo:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCsHuoVABgI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCsHuoVABgI)

~~~
seba_dos1
You can read more in Douglas Adams' and Mark Carwardine's _Last Chance to
See_. Great book.

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YeGoblynQueenne
It took me a few years to accept that the Giant Isopod is a real animal. Let's
see with this one.

