BELOVED BEASTS Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction

Christina Delaine delivers a fable in a tone of childlike wonder as she begins her narration of the story of conservation. The tone continues as author Michelle Nijhuis describes her summer job of watching a desert tortoise. That magical feeling continues to pop up from time to time, as when Delaine describes Nijhuis's first visit to the Smithsonian. Conservation and the people behind it aren't all wonder, though. Delaine's voice turns sad as Nijhuis tells of the decline of America's bison. Her voice reflects William Temple Hornaday's shock when he's quoted on the subject. As Nijhuis continues conservation's story to the present, she revisits the contributions and biases of figures like Hornaday, Aldo Leopold, and Aldous and Julian Huxley. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2021]