Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals
We need to think differently about what the word 'wildlife' really means. To think differently, though, we first have to learn to better see the world around us. We need to look at nonhuman creatures of all kinds in new ways. We have to take the animals seriously as beings with agency who have some kind of justified claim on space. Whales, dolphins, and mountain gorillas are not alien forms of life, they are kin with lessons to teach.
CHRISTOPHER LANCETTE: Christopher Preston’s ‘Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals’ skyrockets off the opening pages more like a heart-pounding thriller than an academic treatise on the future of the planet. Preston’s prose makes it clear that the University of Montana wildlife philosophy professor is no ivory tower elitist writing about a real world he doesn’t actually know.
He is instead a boots-on-the-ground storyteller whose book opens with an account of a Dutch wolf killed by gunshots – prompting Holland’s government to strengthen its support for wolf recovery efforts. The whodunit leads to the first of many gauntlets the author throws down to us as readers, and as people who share the earth with wildlife.
“The challenge presented by the wolf in the Netherlands is a potent illustration of what many animal recoveries demand,” he writes. “To recover a wild animal, you don’t just need the right habitat, enough shelter, and sufficient prey. Nor is recovery simply a matter of better practices to allow humans and wildlife to coexist. You need to do more. You need to think differently about what the word wildlife really means.”
To think differently, though, you first have to learn to better see the world around you. Preston ultimately clicks through an eye doctor’s array of lenses to help us view the new ways we need to look at nonhuman creatures of all kinds. “Whales, dolphins, and mountain gorillas are not alien forms of life,” he proffers. “They are kin with lessons to teach.” Martin Drenthen, a Dutch philosophy professor working on the wolf mystery, echoes that sentiment. “You have to take the animals seriously as beings with agency who have some kind of justified claim on space,” he tells the author…
Tenacious Beasts delves into wildlife recovery efforts that go well beyond the plight of wolves. It covers otters, whales, fish, bears and many others. The tales of bison recovery are spellbinding — from the animals’ importance in Native American cultures to the extraordinarily detailed account of the vital role bison play in the ecosystem — one animal responsible for performing so many critical tasks for many other plants and animals. Each wildlife recovery account documents the highs and lows of what they face, pulling no punches about our species’ horrific role in their demise and our responsibility to help them recover…
Tenacious Beasts delves into wildlife recovery efforts that go well beyond the plight of wolves. It covers otters, whales, fish, bears and many others. The tales of bison recovery are spellbinding — from the animals’ importance in Native American cultures to the extraordinarily detailed account of the vital role bison play in the ecosystem — one animal responsible for performing so many critical tasks for many other plants and animals. Each wildlife recovery account documents the highs and lows of what they face, pulling no punches about our species’ horrific role in their demise and our responsibility to help them recover.
Wildlife ecologist Hugh Jansman, one of the people who investigated the dead wolf, looks at such queries from the opposite end of the telescope – away from animals. “Wildlife management is really an application of people management,” he says. That emphasis also directs the scope of Tenacious Beasts back to we the people. We’re the ones who need to change how we view and treat the animal world. We have to look at animals as family. We have to recognize they can teach us critical lessons and that they can be our partners in our shared survival. SOURCE…
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