Toe in the Water

Animals

Animals

I think that the animals that we really ought to like and respect are those that have adapted to the ways in which humanity has changed the environment. Some have even turned us to their advantage - the rat, for instance, or the seagull, the sparrow, the pigeon (how on earth did they survive before we came along?), the fox (yes, the fox adapts very well to an urban environment and their numbers are increasing). These are the real animal heroes, the brave souls that refuse to bow down to our supposed superiority. It's all very well to feel sorry for the endangered lesser spotted foot warbler, now reduced to a few square yards of habitat in some corner of a building site, but what about the survivors? Animals have been going extinct since long before humanity appeared - we're just another change, that's all. Celebrate the adaptable, for pete's sake, and less whining about species that were doomed to fail anyway.

Don't get me wrong - no one would be happier than me if the Tasmanian tiger were to be found alive and well in the dense undergrowth in the west of that island. But, let's face it, nothing would be changed as a result. And I shall continue to talk to rabbits and birds in my yard while steering well clear of polar bears, thank you!


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