The sudden near-disappearance of vultures in India about two decades ago led to more than half a million excess human deaths over five years. Rotting livestock carcasses, no longer picked to the bones by vultures, polluted waterways and fed an increase in feral dogs carrying rabies.
Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning do matter to human beings, said Eyal Frank, an economist. It's not always the charismatic and fuzzy species.
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