Vanishing Animals

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were Since the explorers of the last century gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For brought the knowledge of the great wonders of whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All the world and the beauty of unseen animals and things are connected. planets into our view, much has changed. So much, in fact, that Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson exclaimed in 1980 that "The one pro­ So spoke Seattle, Chief of the Dwamish and Al­ cess ongoing in the 1980's that will take millions lied Tribes of Puget Sound, in 1855, in reply to "the Great Chief in Washington (who) sent word of years to correct is the loss of genetic and spe­ that he wishes to buy our land. How can you buy cies diversity by the destruction of natural habi­ or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea tats. This is the folly our descendants are least is strange to us," he said. likely to forgive us. " These were prophetic words a century ago Extinction has been an ongoing process for Nature was still very much at equilibrium. To be millenia. However, it was a natural process in the past.