Conservation Reader Part 15

MAN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OTHER ANIMALS

We have learned something about the struggle among the plants and animals for food and for room on the earth. We must not think, however, that this struggle is at all like the war that is carried on between different nations. Wars are usually unnecessary and do more harm than good, for they result in the loss of the strongest and best men. But the struggle among the animals and plants has resulted in good, for it has crowded out the weakest and those less fitted to live.

The struggle among all living things for food and a share of the suns.h.i.+ne has covered the earth with a far greater variety than there would otherwise be. Because so many more are born than there is room for, they crowd and elbow each other. Many are forced to make their homes in regions which they would not have chosen if they had been free to do as they pleased. It is partly because of this crowding that some of the animals which once lived on the ground became changed into birds and made their homes in the trees. A number of the mammals found more freedom in the water and finally became whales, seals, and walruses.

Many moved into deserts and, in learning to live with very little water, developed curious bodies and habits. Some have found a home in the cold North, where they have become suited to a climate which would quickly kill those which had held their ground in the warm and moist tropical regions.

Nature has thus filled the earth with an infinite variety of living things, each of which is doing its part in making the world beautiful and attractive. Man is Nature's last and most wonderful creation. He has learned to fly like the birds, to swim under the sea like the fish, and to harness Nature's forces and make them work for him. But man, with all his wisdom, has too often forgotten that he is really a brother to the lower creatures. The inhabitants of the air, the land, and the water could, if they were able to talk, tell the most pitiful tales of man's cruel treatment of them.

Of course we have to eat, as do all other living creatures, but for thousands of years people have supplied their wants largely from agriculture and from the domestic herds. Although very few of us now have to hunt for our food, and these few are those who live far out on the borders of newly settled regions, yet we have not forgotten the hunting instincts of our ancestors.

Our ancestors of long ago, like the savages on the earth today, seldom killed game unless they needed it for food. We, who think ourselves far better than they, now kill wild life for the pleasure of the chase. The professional hunter who seeks the glossy coats of the fur-bearing animals or the beautiful plumage of certain birds gives no thought to the wasted bodies that he leaves behind.

Since men have become civilized and their needs have become so many, Nature's arrangements have been seriously disturbed. She has not armed the wild creatures against men, who, with all kinds of marvelous weapons, are able to take advantage of them. The wild creatures discover very quickly that they can find little protection against this new enemy, no matter how quick and sharp their senses are.

The blue jay has only his sharp eyes to help him when he seeks the cunningly hidden nest of another bird with the hope of being able to dine upon eggs. The breakfast of the wolf depends alone upon his quickness in catching a rabbit. The mountain lion depends upon his stealthiness when stalking a deer. The Indian relies upon his skill in imitating the call or the appearance of an animal when he tries to approach near enough to use his bow and arrow. Civilized men have lost much of the keenness of sight and hearing they once had, but they have far more than made up for this through their ingenuity in making deadly weapons.

We depend no longer upon the hunt for each day's supply of food. But the instinct to hunt which still remains we use to amuse ourselves while upon our camping trips. Some people even made a living by hunting for the market, although, fortunately for the wild creatures, little of this kind of hunting is now permitted.

The desire to get out of doors and live for a time each year among the wild mountains is another instinct which comes to us from our savage forefathers. This is a beneficial instinct, for life in the fresh air gives us new strength. The hunting instinct is not wrong in itself. It is the manner in which we hunt that is wrong. But how much finer it would be if, instead of using an outing as an excuse to destroy the wild creatures, we should use it to learn about them and their curious ways.

How much more real pleasure there is in studying the habits of the denizens of the woods and fields than there is in killing them!

Many a boy wants to carry a gun, because he has read lurid stories of Indians and robbers, or of hunting in the jungles where lions and tigers abound. This often leads to the killing of harmless birds for the lack of bigger game. Boys should be taught either at home or in school the sacredness of life, and a feeling of pity and love for the wild creatures that are surrounded by enemies on every side. They should be taught that animals have feelings and that they want to live. They should be taught how wrong it is to destroy life uselessly. The nest of eggs or helpless young left to their fate through the thoughtless killing of a mother bird is a sight which must arouse the sympathy of every boy who has been taught what it means.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Eastman Kodak Company_ The only right way to hunt birds' nests--with a camera.]

The killing of the mothers is the surest way to destroy a species. The laws in most of our states now regulate hunting during the breeding season and limit the number of wild animals or birds that may be taken in a given time. Whenever the numbers of any species become so reduced that it is in danger of extinction, all hunting of that species should be prohibited for a number of years.

We should feel sorry for those men who live in a civilized land and get the benefit of its advantages and yet are worse than savages at heart.

If these men who are so wasteful of wild life could be stripped of their destructive weapons and sent into the wilds to make their living as savages do, they would soon learn to be more careful.

The animals prey upon each other because it is their nature to do so and because their lives depend upon it. Savages hunt because they must have food. We do not need to hunt, but, because of our higher intelligence, our hunting methods are far more destructive than are those of either animals or savages.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE ANIMALS AND BIRDS

Nature has done more for our land than for almost any other. She has given it vast forests, fertile soil, favorable climate, enormous water power, many minerals, and a wonderful variety of animal life.

During all the centuries that the Indians lived here before the coming of white men, wild game furnished them their chief food, but in spite of this, the amount of game was not decreased. When our forefathers landed upon this continent, it fairly swarmed with animals and birds. With the clearing away of the forests and the settling of the prairies men could not help depriving many wild creatures of both their shelter and their food, but this was not the chief cause for their rapid decrease in numbers. Hunters followed them persistently into the wilder hills and mountains, and many, not needed for food, were killed for their furs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "There is no recovery of an extinct species. Conservation or devastation--which shall it be? Common sense demands the regulation of hunting in such a way that our wild life will persist as a permanent a.s.set." _Western Wild Life Call_, published by the California a.s.sociated Charities for the Conservation of Wild Life.]

Now we may travel for days through the remote and still unsettled parts of our country and see very little life of any kind except birds and the smaller animals, such as squirrels. Occasionally we may start up a deer that flees away from us like the wind. Still more rarely we come upon a bear and are fortunate if we get even the merest sight of him before he is gone.

The fear of man has spread among all the wild creatures. There is good reason for this fear, because man has completely exterminated some species and so reduced the numbers of others that careful protection will be needed to save them. Travelers tell us that in those lands where man rarely goes the wild creatures have little fear of him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _L. A. Huffman, Miles City, Mont._ Why the buffalo have nearly disappeared from the land.]

The story of the slaughter of the buffalo is known to us all. Once this n.o.ble animal roamed from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains.

Countless thousands were killed merely for their hides, and other thousands were killed for sport. Finally, when they were almost gone, people awoke to the importance of saving them. Several small herds, not more than a few hundred in number, that had escaped the hunters were placed under protection and now they are slowly increasing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _American Museum of Natural History_ A group of Roosevelt elk.]

The grizzly, king of bears, was once abundant in parts of the Rocky Mountains and upon the Pacific slope, but now he is found only in the Yellowstone Park region. The man who killed the last specimen in California is proud of his great achievement.

Of all the elk which once spread over the western part of our country, only a few remain outside of the Yellowstone region. A protected herd exists in the San Joaquin Valley, California, and another small herd roams through the wilder parts of the northern Coast Ranges. The antelope, so common on the plains only a few years ago, are all gone except for small, scattered herds in the more remote parts of the West.

Of the many fur-bearing animals which once inhabited the Northwest, beavers were the most widespread and abundant. Their pelts were so valuable that they were used as money. For many years the trapping of these little animals was an important industry, until at last they were practically exterminated in every stream throughout the western half of the country. A few beaver are known to remain in the Yellowstone Park, where they are of course carefully protected. In Oregon a few escaped and have been carefully protected for some years. In certain places they are now quite abundant. In parts of New England and Canada they are now increasing under the protection of the game laws.

The sea otter, now extremely rare, is so highly valued for its fur that it soon may become extinct, although completely protected by law.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _New York Zoological Society_ A beaver and its lodge.]

The pa.s.senger pigeon, whose flights almost covered the sky at times not more than forty years ago, and whose numbers seemed so great that no one believed it possible of extermination, is now gone forever. The extinction of these birds was due chiefly to their being slaughtered at their roosting places.

The California condor, one of the largest of birds, is almost extinct.

The prairie chicken has disappeared from the prairies and plains.

Certain species of grouse, and especially the sage grouse, mountain quail, and others, which inhabit spa.r.s.ely settled regions, are thought to be still holding their ground, but should be more carefully protected. The valley quail is, however, much reduced in numbers; while ducks, geese, and smaller sh.o.r.e birds are decreasing with each succeeding year.

Even in the jungles of far-away Africa, where we would think the animals are exposed to little danger of extinction, some of them, such as the elephant, are in urgent need of protection. In the far North the great polar bear will not long survive unless rigidly protected.

What terrible scourge has so suddenly come upon the birds and animals that once adorned our country? How is it that in the short s.p.a.ce of fifty years many of them have almost disappeared from their ancient haunts? We feel like hiding our faces in shame, for it is the same man scourge that for many hundreds of years has been destroying the forests, the animals, and the birds of many other countries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Finley & Bohlman_ A California condor.]

The helplessness of all the wild creatures before man's destructive weapons should arouse our sympathy, if nothing else does. Leaving out of account a few predatory animals that destroy large numbers of other animals, we should most earnestly try to protect those that remain.

The beauty of the birds, their sweet music, the companions.h.i.+p which they afford, and, last but not least, their great value to the farmer and fruit grower, should arouse our earnest efforts in their behalf.

In our country alone an army of five million men and boys go out to hunt wild creatures every year. The animals are so defenseless against man's weapons that it is not a fair fight, in which the quicker or sharper escape, but a slaughter.

If these hunters were savages armed only with bows and arrows, then the wild creatures would have a chance for their lives. Besides, savages do not kill for sport, nor do they purposely destroy Nature's most valuable gifts to them.

The forest that has been cut down will grow again. The soil that has been made poor will, if let alone, sometime become fertile again. But those species of birds, animals, and fish which we have completely destroyed will never be restored to us.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Nat'l a.s.s'n Audubon Societies_ The sage grouse, which is in danger of extinction.]

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE TRAGEDIES OF MILADY'S HAT AND CAPE