I mean, we spend millions to save pandas, who have very low survival instinct because it is cute and can attract tourists but not passenger pigeon, dodo, tasmanian tiger because of " Charismatic Megafauna Bias". We need vertebrates, not vertebrates, algea, fungi and plants that provides us, is charming or indirectly help us(like tourism).

So, if it a pure act of kindness, why are vertebrates(mammals, birds, fishes, etc) gets 86% of nature conservation funding

And only 6.6% for plants and less than 0.1% for fungi and algea?

Isn't it biased? Who benefits from that?

Despite a string of prosecutions, the illegal trade in ants from East Africa continues, attracting would-be traffickers from Europe and China.

In March, Kenyan authorities arrested a Chinese national for attempting to smuggle 2,000 giant African harvester ants from the country’s main airport. He was later sentenced by a Nairobi court to a year in prison and fined KES 1 million (about USD 7,700) after pleading guilty.

Last May, a Kenyan court had convicted two Belgian teenagers for trying to traffic 5,000 ants of the same species, as Dialogue Earth reported at the time.

Behind these incidents lurks an international market for exotic ants.

“There is a rise of ant-colony-building enthusiasts, especially in Vietnam, China and Europe, that is fuelling the smuggling of ants from Kenya,” says Willis Okumu, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, a think-tank headquartered in South Africa.  

The trade is not unique to the country, Okumu notes, but “Kenya’s authorities are perhaps more open to reporting arrests of traffickers within their airports, hence the spotlight on the country”.

I'm looking for good colleges to try and apply for. I got a 24 on my ACT if that matters. I've been into conservation my whole life and I have experience working at a wetland preserve for over a year and doing other things of the sort. I live in Georgia so I've been looking a lot closer at colleges down here and still do want recommendations down here in the southeast US. Thanks in advance!