http://www.sciencenews.org | March 13, 2021 29On October 29,
1929, a date best
remembered for
the infamous
Black Tuesday
stock market
crash, socialite
and amateur bird
watcher Rosalie
Edge attended a meeting of the National
Association of Audubon Societies. She
was there to ask whether it was true, as
a pamphlet had claimed, that the orga-
nization supported bounties on bald
eagles in Alaska and turning wildlife
refuges into shooting grounds.
The men who led the organization
were outraged that she brought up
the issue. But the pamphlet revealed a
truth about conservation at the time:
The movement was not as much about
saving species as it was about saving
only certain species that people liked.
And sometimes people only liked
those species because they liked to
kill them.
The idea of conservation has
evolved a lot over the last two centu-
ries, as Michelle Nijhuis documents in
her new book, Beloved Beasts: Fighting
for Life in an Age of Extinction. It was
only in the mid-1700s that Carl
Linnaeus began formalizing the idea
of species. The recognition that a spe-
cies could actually go extinct followed
soon after. The push to prevent extinc-
tions from happening came in the
1800s, with the realization that spe-
cies such as the dodo had disappeared
forever. Now we know that humans
are driving such losses at a rate not
seen for millions of years.
Edge is just one of the many people
who Nijhuis highlights in her excellent
history. She includes famous names,
such as Aldo Leopold , who in the early
20th century shaped the field of wild-
life biology and whose writings have
influenced generations, and Rachel
Carson , whose 1962 book Silent SpringBeloved Beasts
Michelle Nijhuis
W.W. NORTON & CO.,
$27.95BOOKSHELF
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MAR_051_19_B.indd 5 10/17/2019 3:05:35 PMinspired huge changes to U.S. environ-
mental laws and the creation of the
Environmental Protection Agency.
But it’s Nijhuis’ tales of lesser-known
people, such as Edge and Michael
Soulé, who is considered the father of
conservation biology, that prove most
fascinating. Their stories show how a
single person can spark big changes,
creating organizations and efforts
that last for decades and grow to span
the globe.
The book truly shines, though, when
Nijhuis is brutally honest about how
the conservation movement gained
a reputation for being antihuman.
Prominent conservationists in the 19th
and 20th centuries at times endorsed
abhorrent practices, such as eugenics.
But more often and more subtly, the
movement has advocated for actions
such as removing Indigenous commu-
nities from areas set aside for wildlife.
Nijhuis also recognizes the need to
move beyond worrying about saving
eagles or any other single species. We
must save whole ecosystems, all while
balancing human needs, she writes.
One example of such a holistic
approach comes from Namibia, home
to iconic animals like rhinos and
giraffes, where conservation is not
a top-down effort guided by govern-
ments or organizations with offices on
the other side of the planet. It’s carried
out by dozens of local conservancies
that consider the needs of both their
local animals and their local people.
Through detailed scrutiny, Nijhuis
shows that Namibia’s model is proving
successful.
Past methods of saving species, such
as focusing solely on charismatic ani-
mals, won’t halt what is now recognized
by many as Earth’s sixth mass extinc-
tion. But the book’s focus on paths
forward provides a bit of hope. That
hope springs from collective action:
We all must step up to save our planet’s
beloved beasts. — Sarah Zielinskireviews.indd 29reviews.indd 29 2/24/21 10:22 AM2/24/21 10:22 AM