Archive Report
Archive Report
Efforts to Preserve Rare Wild Species
American wildlife, one of the country's great natural resources, faces depletion and, in some cases, extinction. As Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall recently pointed out, “The seemingly irreversible trend in the world today …is toward more and more human beings, lumped together in ever-widening urban clusters.” Udall added that “Efforts to feed and clothe this surging population, together with the downright arithmetic of the space it must occupy simply to exist, impose a growing threat to wild areas and animals which remain.”1
Hunters seeking food, fuel (whale oil), fur or plumage formerly inflicted the greatest damage on wildlife. Today, in contrast, man's destruction of wild creatures is largely inadvertent. Every new highway, airport or suburban development diminishes the ...