Web of Life Before we could do anything else, we
had to find out which species were in the park. We also had to find which ones were missing. T is isn’t as easy as it sounds. Aſt er
all, the park is a large ecosystem. It’s made of many diff erent kinds of habitats. T ousands of diff erent kinds of plants and animals live in each of these habitats. Some of them live nowhere else. Together, these organisms form
a community of species that need one another. T is web of life in an ecosystem is called biodiversity. Gorongosa is one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth.
A Good Example I was reminded of this diversity one
day while I was in a grassland habitat. A dung beetle was rolling a ball of dung. I thought about how all the species in this habitat depend on it. Without the beetle to remove
waste, layers of antelope dung would pile up, killing the grass. Without grass, the antelopes wouldn’t have food. Without antelopes, lions would starve. From big to small, each species aff ects biodiversity.
14 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER
Searching for Species T e only way to document species is
to go out and find them. So, off we went to search for every species we could find. As we searched, we soon realized
that many small organisms were still there, just in smaller numbers than in the past. Every habitat we visited was full of insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. T ere were many frogs, snakes, and other amphibians and reptiles, too. Animals weren’t all we were
looking for. Our team had botanists, too. T ese scientists study plants. T ey found over a thousand plant species. Once the scientists collected all their data, we had logged nearly 3,500 species of animals and plants.
What’s Missing? Unfortunately, there were huge gaps
in the ecosystem’s biodiversity. Some of these missing species are probably gone forever. We know that only a few hundred
buff aloes are leſt out of 14,000. Of the 3,500 zebras, only 40 remain. And there are no rhinos leſt in the park at all. Just as the larger animals are rare, so are many of the largest plants.
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