If Other Species Disappear, Can Man be Far Behind?

The last moa was one of the hundreds eaten year by year, by the first settlers in New Zealand. The last elephant bird probably lived over three hundred years ago. And the hunters of South Africa shot the very last Quagga in 1883. All these animals and countless others are as dead as the dodo that waddled its last on the island of Mauritius in 1681. When we see pictures of these fabulous creatures in books it sends a shiver down the spine to know that it was man who plundered their habitats or hunted them all to extinction, only to satisfy his selfish and insatiable greed.

Could this happen to all that remains of our planet? Could there ever be a last tiger or elephant, rhinoceros- or even a last tree? Yes there could. Today, thousands of species are endangered. And because man not only hunts them for their meat and skin but also destroys their habitat, one of the species that it doomed to face extinction is man himself. In a world where other animals can’t live, man can’t live.

How long can our earth sustain us if we go in using everything, for everything we need, as if there is no tomorrow? Animals are killed for meat and skin, trees are cut down for paper, plants are uprooted for food, and minerals are dug from the ground. But even nature’s abundant larder is not inexhaustible. If we don’t take care of what we have left, soon there’ll be nothing left to plunder. Taking care of what we have left means trying to strike a balance between or needs and the needs of every other living thing on earth. Let’s conserve wildlife to save mankind.