Horrible Creatures Have a Place in the World – How Revolting #poem #poetry #biology #nature

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Tick fossilized in amber – they’ve been around a long time

My dog is scratching at his fleas,

There’s mistletoe throughout my trees.

Can climate change be all bad

If it kills a few of these?

Egg to larva to adult,

From fish to foul they catapult

Their complex lives to realize,

Or from seeds and spores result.

Successful parasites don’t kill,

They want their hosts to thrive, yet still

Niches open when they go

To creatures worse that will.

Some are horrible, it’s true,

We won’t miss River Blindness soon.

Next time your tummy’s sick, just know

They’re part of Mother Nature’s glue.

by Kate Rauner

Thanks to a study published in the journal Science Advances, completed with the help of the U.S. National Parasite Collection, as well as specialized databases of ticks, fleas, bee mites, and feather mites; and to techtimes Many thanks to the

Carter Center, because some parasites simply have to go. But it’s interesting to think about the little nasties we’ve adapted to live with – and them with us.

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Filed under: Poetry Tagged: balance of nature, biology, climate change leads to extinctions, parasites, River Blindness