Hannah RichterParasites have a bad rap. Most people think of them as scary, gross, or both, but they are also diverse creatures that have evolved in and on every animal and ecosystem on the planet. Parasitism is the most successful way of life for an animal — representing more than 40% of all species — and the wormy and crawly creatures it encompasses are vastly understudied. An increasing volume of research shows that parasites play important ecological functions, from keeping animal populations in check to stabilizing food chains to driving evolution and biodiversity. While parasites can cause horrible human suffering, especially in countries without reliable clean water or sanitation systems, only a fraction of parasites affect humans, with estimates as low as 0.1%.
As climate change and habitat loss threaten animals, so too do they endanger the parasites that live on and inside them. At the same time parasite biodiversity faces shrinkage, the field of parasitology reckons with its own crisis: membership in the American Society of Parasitologists has declined by 76% in the past 50 years, and many of the world’s most important parasitologists are elderly or dead. To revitalize the field, parasitologists are charming younger generations with parasite Pokémon cards and stuffed animals and attempting to integrate parasites into global conservation programs. One main question is on parasitologists’ minds: How can they convince people to discover, catalog, and understand the world’s parasite biodiversity before parasites, the field’s leaders, and their valuable knowledge die off?
