From Donald A. Windsor
“Save the rhino maggot!” does not have much appeal as a conservation slogan, as Matt Kaplan points out (27 March, p 40). However, “equal rights for parasites!” certainly does.
I first published this catchy slogan in Nature (vol 348, p 104) and later wrote a guest editorial in Conservation Biology, a full article in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (1997) and a letter in BioScience, all three titled with that battle cry.
I shout “equal rights for parasites!” whenever I get a chance, for the reasons Kaplan articulated and many more. Most biologists, even those with advanced degrees, have avoided taking a course in parasitology. Those who have were limited to medical/veterinary biases.
From an ecological aspect, parasites rule ecosystems. Parasites, by definition, harm their hosts as individuals. But, they are beneficial for their hosts at the species level. As just one example, when a free-living species becomes too numerous, a disease breaks out and culls the population. Parasites regulate ecosystems and thereby enable their host species to survive. Without parasites, ecosystems would spin out of control and our biosphere would collapse.
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