Ask Lemmy

All I see here are a bunch of cowards, just look at all the top posts here, what do they have in common? Bedbugs, ticks, mosquitos... all parasites that target humans. That's too easy, anyone can get behind that.

But I'm actually willing to step out on a limb and say something. Manatees. What have manatees done for me lately? Laying about... Aggressively loitering in our estuaries! Get a job you lazy sea cows. You think kelp grows on trees? They're a drain on the global economy and a blubberous aquatic menace! Let's get rid of them!

mosquito

Chicken!

Just to see how everyone would react.

Do you even know what a buzzard actually is though? Go look up a photo of a buzzard and make sure you aren't mistaking buzzards with vultures.

Both are vital parts of theor ecosystems though, I'd hate to see either vanish.

My pick might very well be humans for how fucked up we are and how much we destroy and cause suffering for all the other animals

Any of the scary parasites, like the guinea worm or those amoebas that eat your brain and kill you within a week.

Cattle. That would cut down human land use by a lot (in the short term, probably not very effective in the long term)

Giraffes

"One animal" could easily mean an individual animal. This makes things tricky. Ruling out humans (because that's no fun), how can a single animal's disappearance affect anything?

Well, I don't think it can. The biggest effects would happen if you remove an individual from a critically endangered species, but I don't see anything good coming from that. For just about all other species, it would be like a drop in the ocean.

So, given that I probably can't make the world meaningfully better, I'll aim smaller. I'll remove a dog that shits in the street without its owner picking it up, causing innocent people to step in it.

Myself.

Elephants. I feel like they just eat to many leaves and its an inefficient build. They are like an American F150

They walk around the jungle stomping on things and eating a lot. They can squirt water from their trunk and what else? I like em but dont get the point of them.

Grizzlies.

The Orange Crybaby.

these flying stinging insects ... what are they called ... that can give you bad diseases (e.g. malaria)

The amnesia sloth-newt. That tricky fucker got me yesterday... I can't remember what it was but it was important and by the time I got out of the shower... Poof! It was gone with the memory.

Maybe jellyfish? They are annoying and sometimes dangerous, and right offhand I can't see any downside to their disappearance.

As others have said its a no brainer with man. Other species would still be in existence without us and the earth would be in a good healthy shape and maybe some more deserving species would evolve. Its a shame we can't meet our potential and actually be helping the health of the earth rather than hindering it.