# Animals which we couldn't live without **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2007, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-which-we-couldnt-live-without/403381 "2007-05-09T13:41:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-which-we-couldnt-live-without/403381/41 "2007-05-10T18:23:19Z")
so humans put out the occasional huge wildfire that might wipe out a species or 2 every couple thousand years is your argument that humans are some how good for the planet? what about the fires set to burn in the south American rain forests to clear land for farming that will only produce crops for a few seasons before they burn more forrest for more next to useless farmland rinse and repeat? even conservative estimates would guess at hundreds of extinctions each year due to this. and the extinction rate prior to humans altering the planet for their needs was something around 1 per 1000 years, now its (or it was) close to 1 per day? sorry for the hi-jack. I dont think any single animal would have a huge holy crap we are all gonna die effect but there are quite a few that would have some significant impacts. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-which-we-couldnt-live-without/403381/42 "2007-05-10T19:17:44Z")
[QUOTE=Heckxx] At the very least, if every cow were to suddenly die, there would be widespread panic. [/QUOTE] But at least we’d still have Phish. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-which-we-couldnt-live-without/403381/43 "2007-05-10T20:44:18Z")
[QUOTE=Scribble] There are earthworms native to North America. Here’s what [one of the Master’s minions says on this topic.](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mwormsna.html) [/QUOTE] Thanks for fighting the ignorance. Somebody needs to write a letter to National Geographic and straighten them out. I _thought_ it sounded fishy. The article describes the huge drifts of leaves that supposedly blew around North American forests until European worms arrived to turn them into mulch. :dubious: Then again, there was a _lot_ about that article (about the Jamestown colony) that was suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-which-we-couldnt-live-without/403381/44 "2007-05-10T21:52:08Z")
Here’s how [National Geographic](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/) describes the worm situation: > [@](#): > > It’s just possible that (Jamestown colonist) John Rolfe was responsible for the worms – specifically the common night crawler and the red marsh worm, creatures that did not exist in the Americas before Columbus… > > …And little worms can trigger big changes. The hardwood forests of New England and the upper Midwest, for instance, have no native earthworms – they were apparently wiped out in the last Ice Age. In such worm-free woodlands, leaf litter piles up in drifts on the forest floor. But when earthworms are introduced, they can do away with the litter in a few months. The problem is that the northern trees and shrubs beneath the forest canopy depend on that litter for food… > > …What is clear is that much of the northern forests of America were worm free until the Europeans arrived there, inadvertently importing earthworms on the root-balls of their plants or in the ballast of ships… So their language is more circumspect than I remembered, describing only the _northern_ forests as being worm-free, before the dastardly Europeans arrived and callously inflicted their worms on the place. (Sorry; that last bit was a venting of my aggravation at the “noble savage” vibe of the rest of the article.) ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-which-we-couldnt-live-without/403381/45 "2007-05-11T03:11:56Z")
Well the dinosaurs went extinct and the cavemen managed to survive, FWIW. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-which-we-couldnt-live-without/403381.md?page=2)