HERE’S an economic incentive to protect biodiversity: we’ll save money on public health. Habitat and species loss could cost us millions, because the animals that play host to mosquitoes and ticks will go unchecked by predators.
Small, separate patches of forest and grassland cannot support large roaming predators, allowing small prey animals such as the white-footed mouse to thrive. This species carries and transmits Lyme disease very efficiently, while larger animals such as squirrels, foxes and coyotes do not, says Andy Dobson, an ecologist at Princeton University.
Lyme disease is more prevalent in areas where animals’ habitat is very fragmented.…
