Natural Enemies--Metaphor or Misconception?

Abstract

When two northern snakeheads, a carnivorous Asian fish, were discovered with their progeny in a Maryland pond in 2002, state produced an unwanted poster, and biologists publicly declared fish to be an imminent danger to East Coast aquatic ecosystems. It was the baddest bunny in bush. Such metaphorical statements are ubiquitous even in science, largely because of their simplicity and intuitive appeal. In their essay, Chew and Laubichler argue that metaphors can cause serious problems. For example, term natural enemies is widely used in ecology literature, including many papers in Science and Nature. These papers describe well-defined specific ecological processes, and hence term natural enemies persists merely as a rhetorical device. The problem is that metaphorical abstractions all too easily turn familiar human experiences into normative statements about nature. Using bellicose and unnecessary terms like enemy therefore carries both real and conceptual risks.