VANISHING WILD LIFE.

Forest and Bird, Issue 26, 1 March 1932, Page 4

VANISHING WILD LIFE.

(By The Society for the Preservation of Fauna of the Empire (London).)

“Singing birds are with us . . . beasts of intelligence and heroic forms. ... Yes, these we have, but, oh, for the songs that will never be heard on earth now! for the beauty we shall never see! for the forms of light and glory which will never flit among earth’s trees! —for the creatures of intelligence that will never tread earth’s floor! Oh, the might have been, which is forever impossible now!”— Olive Schreiner.

Men of science have called this period the “Close of the Age of Mammals.” Travellers, Zoologists, and Photographers are reporting that wherever they go, in hot climates and in cold, in the North and South, on land and in the ocean, wild life is being destroyed at a far, far greater rate than it can be reproduced. By motor car, by aeroplanes with wireless, by trade, by sportsmen, by poison, by guns, by traps, by every conceivable device, earth’s wild creatures are steadily and surely being wiped out of existence. We are already too late to save many beautiful species. Collectors, sportsmen and trade finished the curious and innocent great Auk. The handsome Quagga is gone for ever and only 18 stuffed specimens in museums remain of all his herds ■ The Blue Buck, a noble African antelope, left the world almost before science had noticed its existence! The true Burchells’ Zebra will never stamp his hoof, nor graze, a glory of gold and brown in African sunshine, for not one remains. The Passenger Pigeons used to darken the heavens as they passed, but their hosts have all been killed. The Labrador Duck, the Eskimo Curlew, the Cuban Macaw, Gosse’s Macaw, the Yellow Winged Parrot, the Purple Parrakeet, the Carolina Parakeet, and others are but a memory. The Fur Trade has speedily reduced wild animals to so low a level that the Fur World (a trade paper), 15th January. 1928, stated:

“The Trade in skins will increase in volume until the needs of man coupled with the vanity of women have exhausted all the beasts upon the earth’s surface.”

Blubber trades are robbing the oceans of their mammals. Certain species of Whales are pursued by floating piers and bombed and harpooned with such persistence that the British Museum of Natural History is concerned lest they be totally exterminated. These leviathans of the seas can only be saved

by international legislation, giving them absolute sanctuary in certain waters, and to promote this a keen public opinion is necessary. The greedy food trades are killing European Wild Fowl at such a rate for profit that an International Conference has been considering how their breeding haunts can be protected. The Polar Bear, the Grisly Bear, the Moose, the Elephant Seal, the Elk, the White Rhino, the Koala, the Sea Otter, the European Bison, the Platypus, the Giraffe, the African Elephant, the Gorilla, and countless more are dwindling before the murderous onslaught of Man. Appeals in the Press are opened and thousands of pounds subscribed to preserve St. Paul’s or Westminster Abbey. But to save living creatures —radiant in their beauty, marvellous in their structure, noble in their courage and perfect in their love for their young and their own kind—the Society for the Preservation of Fauna of the Empire can hardly get sufficient funds to issue leaflets, not to speak of making Sanctuaries! These wild animals have each their appointed place in the Creator’s mighty scheme, and it is our duty to hand on this living heritage to the future generations. Join in this great constructive work of Preservation while there is yet time. Help save what remains of the strange beautiful animals that with man have evolved through countless ages and which are now threatened with the end, for

“Life which all can take and none can give, Life which all creatures love and strive to keep, Wonderful, dear and pleasant unto each” is the most precious and the most glorious thing in the world.

Let New Zealanders help in the attainment of the above desirable objects by preserving the remnants of their own unique plants and birds.