The Most Dangerous Species

This photograph depicts an exhibit from the Bronx Zoo's Great Ape House back in the 1960's.  It might have been the earliest use of this display that I've seen, but I've certainly come across many versions of it since.  I've never actually seen one at a zoo, but I've heard about it from others, as well as having read a fictional account of one in Yann Martel's Life of Pi. 


From the (human-caused) fires that have ravaged the Amazon and Australia, to the very real possibility of war between the US and Iran, to the countless acts of relatively minor malice and stupidity that confront us every day, this sign holds true a half-century later.


Still, if humans are the only species that can willfully imperil the survival of entire ecosystems, we are also the only one that can strive to save them.  For every poacher, there is a conservationist.  For every carelessly tossed match in the Outback, there is a firefighter, or a wildlife rehabilitator, or someone a world away who is willing to donate money they can't easily spare to help the rescue efforts.  I see a lot of people get too self-satisfied on the "human = trash" train, as if they themselves weren't human, and they could just wash their hands of the whole mess. 


The world does not need your despair, and it certainly doesn't want your smugness.


It needs your action, and it needs your voice.