After researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego discovered a seahorse-like creature called the ruby sea dragon, they described this brilliant red fish as a charismatic species. Many scientists use the word charismatic to characterize animals that humans may find particularly appealing, which makes such animals useful for raising public awareness of biological diversity and environmental concerns. Such fauna — or in the case of pandas and elephants, megafauna — are sometimes called glamour animals or hero species. A hero shot in advertising, by the way, is a photo of a product or service that sums up its appeal to potential customers. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Charismatic Animals”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography here in San Diego and the Western Australian Museum announced a fantastic discovery recently off the coast of Western Australia. It was the ruby sea dragon.
Have you seen these videos?
No. What is a sea dragon?
You’ve got to Google this. It’s a big, weird-looking red seahorse, and they were the first people to spot it in the wild. And Josephine Stiller, who is a graduate marine biology student at Scripps, called it this amazing moment. And she said, quote, the discovery shows us that we can still find big, charismatic, bright red fish that no one has ever seen before.
And that jumped out at me, the word charismatic. I love that use in conservation and biology, charismatic species.
Yeah, they talk about charismatic megafauna, right?
Yes. So this would be your giraffes and elephants and rhinos and things like that.
Right, right. And these are the animals that are really appealing, like pandas are absolutely adorable. As someone said, it’s not like you’re going to wear a T-shirt that says, save the Glandular Bush Crickets, right, or the Purple Pig-Nosed Frogs.
Now I will.
Now you would, you would, because you’re such a contrarian. We’ve got to get you a T-shirt that says that.
No, but my wife loves banana slugs and would literally wear a shirt that had a banana slug on it.
Bless her heart. Because she just thinks they’re amazing.
They’re cool.
Yeah, they are. They are cool. But I doubt a banana slug would be, well, maybe it is. It’s not charismatic megafauna.
It might be charismatic fauna.
Right. I don’t know how mega it is, though.
Microfauna, yeah. But there are other interesting terms for that as well. Sometimes they’re called not charismatic species, but they’re called glamour animals or heroic species or flagship species.
Well, the heroic species is interesting because that use of heroic echoes the word hero that is used in advertising and film where they talk about the hero shot. And it’s not a shot of the main protagonist. It’s actually a really beautiful shot of the product. Or it’s a really beautiful shot that kind of sets up the psychological moment that you need the viewer to have.
In advertising?
In advertising. The hero shot is like, let’s talk about the hamburger with the steam coming off of it. Or like the ice cream with that perfect twist being formed as they put it on the cone. Like that’s the hero shot.
No kidding. So we have heroic not necessarily meaning someone who saves the day, but like somebody looking or something looking really great.
Oh, my gosh. Like Febreze or something right there in the middle of the frame.
That’s fascinating. I don’t know how you make a hero shot of Febreze. Maybe it’s the mist coming out of the nozzle, right? Like slow-mo mist. Fascinating. Beautiful people in the background. I don’t know what that shot is.
Well, I always love dipping into these other fields of inquiry, like marine biology or advertising, whatever, and encountering their slang and jargon. Charismatic language is something we want to discuss with you. Anything that’s happening having to do with language, 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
