Gatekeeping in wildlife research sidelines women, young scientists, and “unglamorous” animals, UJ study finds

Conservation science is overlooking some of the planet’s most important species, including many endangered ones. Not because they are unimportant, but because they are not ‘cute’ enough, a study by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has found.

The study analysed global publication patterns and surveyed conservation researchers worldwide. It was published in the journal People and Nature.

The findings also imply impactful opportunities for young and female scientists in developing countries. This, despite entrenched Global North research networks ‘gatekeeping’ entry to researching charismatic animals such as elephants, lions and sharks in ways surprising to people outside academia.

“In science, attention is a form of currency. It influences which species get studied, which projects get funded, and which papers get cited,” says Dr Laura Tensen.

This drives advantage for well-funded Global North researchers studying lions and sharks, while the unglamorous species such as rats and crabs – and people studying them – fall further behind.

Dr Tensen is an assistant professor at the Applied Zoology and Nature Conservation Department of the University of Greifswald, in Germany.

What counts as ‘charismatic’ turns out to be surprisingly well-defined. Charismatic species often possess impressive ornamentation, horns, or defensive armour, as well as striking or colourful patterns, or facial markings that exaggerate traits such as large eyes, Dr Tensen notes.

Dr Tensen graduated with her PhD from the University of Johannesburg, studying the charismatic African wild dog.

Prof Peter Teske adds: “To me as a marine biologist, charismatic species fall into two categories. There is the awe-inspiring type that can eat me if I get too close while diving, like most larger sharks and whales – which are best avoided.

“Then there is the visually striking type, which includes unusually shaped fish such as seahorses, seadragons and puffers, and particularly colourful ones such as mandarin fish and clown fish,” he says.

Prof Teske is the Director of the Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation, at the UJ Department of Zoology.

Animals outside the awe-inspiring or visually striking ‘club’ pay a steep price in conservation neglect, even when they are endangered. Good examples are freshwater mussels, pygmy possums, and box turtles, says Dr Tensen.

Many highly endangered animals are also small and easy to overlook. These are rarely visible in conservation research or action, she adds.

Even today, huge numbers of larger animals are not well known to science. There has been zero conservation research on 47% of reptile families, says Prof Teske. In the oceans, small, drab-coloured bottom-dwellers such as most gobies and blennies are often poorly studied even though they play key roles in the food web.

However, this ‘biodiversity neglect’ of many animals can create opportunities for young researchers.

“If you choose to work on less charismatic species, one big difference is that the research space is often much more open. There are typically fewer established groups with decades of accumulated data, fewer entrenched networks, and sometimes fewer implicit ‘rules of entry,’ argues Dr Tensen.

This creates a career advantage that is especially significant for young and female researchers outside traditional Global North networks.

Prof Teske draws on his own career to illustrate the point. “Working on the charismatic ones was usually exhausting and discouraging, because I had to deal with unnecessary politics, and the original research networks tended to shrink because the participating scientists were suspicious of each other.

“When it came to the uncharismatic species, the research networks tended to grow: Anyone who could contribute was welcome, instead of being perceived as a competitor who might steal our data. As a result, the research on the uncharismatic species often had a much greater impact,” he says.

Charismatic species can be really powerful ‘flagships’ for broader environmental conservation, concludes Dr Tensen. As long as the public, funders and researchers are aware of the bias towards them and actively counterbalance it.