A ray of hope. A realistic acknowledgement of advances that have been made. In Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries that Change How We Think About Animals, Christopher J Preston, (The MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2023) not only documents the animals on the rebound but offers innovative thinking on the emotional and conceptual changes we need to make to keep the recovery in full swing.
Here's the good news:
- From a low of around 1,200 when the hunting moratorium took effect, humpback whale numbers in the North Pacific have ballooned to over 20,000, a figure believed close to pre-exploitation levels.
- Humpback whales in the western Indian Ocean have surged from 600 in the middle of the last century to over 30,000 today.
- Northern elephant seals have recovered from less than 100 to nearly 200,000.
- Bald Eagles in the US have climbed from just over 400 nesting pairs in the 1960s to more than 70,000 today after a ban on DDT.
- Black bears in California have quadrupled in a few decades.
- Storks are breeding in southern England for the first time since the Middle Ages.
- Bobcats in New England have increased tenfold since the 1970s thanks to the regrowth of forests.
- Common cranes are nesting again in Ireland after 300 years, courtesy of the re-wetting of peat bogs.
- There are 10 times more wolverines in Finland than three decades ago.
- Europe's golden jackal population has increased more than 30 times, with jackals now breeding in France and Denmark where they have never lived before.
- Wolves now number more than 12,000 in Europe, and their range has expanded into densely populated countries, including the Netherlands and Belgium, where they have been absent for a century.
- Saiga antelope in Kazakhstan have nearly tripled since a 2015 die off.
- River otters are back in the San Francisco Bay.
- Harbor porpoises are increasing 10% a year off the Washington coast.
Some of this success comes after intensive conservation and captive breeding programs; some from the restoration of habitat, and some from simply ending the animal's slaughter. To continue improvement, though, Preston (and the fascinating scientists he interviewed for the book) contend that "the idea that wildernesses are reserved for the wild beasts and that people can live only in protective isolation from them is a damaging fiction… A coexistence model is starting to replace a separation model. A softening of the strict ideological boundaries of splitting people and wildlife is under way."
And just as fascinating are the changes going on in the natural world. "The living world is doing what it can to survive. Biologists have tracked numerous species trying desperately to cope with [climate] change. Birds are laying their eggs earlier. Plants are adjusting the timing of their bloom. Everything from butterflies to fur trees have moved north, and higher in elevation, in search of more hospitable temperatures. Some animals are shapeshifting. The bills of Australian parrots have grown nearly 10% since the 1870s to dissipate more heat. Masked shrews in Alaska have developed longer tails to help them with cooling. Bats in China have lengthened their wings so more of their blood vessels are exposed to the air."
It's a lively, accessible book in part because of the tenacious scientists and naturalists who are devoting their lives to sustainability. And it's an interesting travelog as Preston jets around the world looking for answers.
For more realistic/optimistic/hopeful insights into the world, check out:
Is optimism a progressive stance?
Violence is declining worldwide? Yes!
Fascinating look at our ancestors the Neanderthals.