The Paradox of Charismatic Fauna

Being charismatic can often come with a price; ironically, the label of charismatic fauna could have partially contributed to the decline of these species. 

With the exception of certain species (tigers, pandas and polar bears) who have successfully benefited from communication of their endangerment status to the public, the predicament of many other charismatic species is further amplified by the fact that the public are unaware of these threats, due to a perceptual bias introduced by product marketing and intensive use of charismatic fauna as flagship species. 

The effect of having the faces of these endangered charismatic animals plastered everywhere (posters, tees, books, even pillows!), unbeknownst to us, is large and impactful, in a paradoxical way — the omnipresence of these animals in marketing and in our culture leads to the erroneous association of these animals with abundance.

This shows us that the intensive usage of certain appealing species can actually lead to their demise, if not marketed together with sufficient information about their endangerment and risk of extinction, by warping our perception of their abundance.