“What is the function of Species X?” Is a question I hear often from non-biologists.

But it’s hard to answer. Species don’t exist to serve a function. They exist because they can. Everything is just trying to find a way to be.

@alexwild
it seems to me that for most charismatic megafauna, there is a "traditional answer"; lions exist to "control" the zebra population, cheetah exist to "control" the gazelle population, wolves "control" the deer population, and so on.