The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times(24)

“You speak of these different species so swiftly and with such familiarity, it’s as though you’re naming your friends.”

“Well,” she said, “it’s because it matters a lot to me. These are the stories I think about to counteract all the gloom and doom.”

“It is inspiring,” I said. “And who’s leading the way in saving these animals? Is it conservation groups? NGOs? Everyday people? What’s making the difference?”

“Often it’s everyday people,” Jane said. “Some farmers are joining the rewilding efforts and turning their land back to nature, especially if it was not very suitable for farming in the first place. And some of the programs are really far-reaching and have a lot of support.”

I told Jane about the farm my father-in-law had owned in Illinois and how he had planted native grasses and delighted in the wild turkeys and other species that had returned to the land. I’ll never forget him on his tractor, surveying his land, farming the native plants. But wild turkeys are one thing, and some of the rewilding plans are hoping for the return of predators like wolves and mountain lions.

“I imagine some people are not fans of rewilding and don’t want to set the land aside for animals, especially carnivores?”

“No, of course not,” Jane said. “It is the same in Africa as in America. Farmers are worried about the loss of livestock to predators; fishermen and hunters are concerned about the effect some animals will have on their ‘sport.’ But as more people realize that animals have a right to live and are sentient beings with personalities, minds, and emotions, there is increased public support for these programs. What’s really exciting is that some of these species in the European plains were on the very brink of extinction. A few dedicated people have saved all manner of highly endangered species from joining the long list of vanished life-forms and given them another chance.”

“What is your favorite story about bringing a species back from the brink?”





Rescued from the Brink



“This story involves three very special characters,” Jane began. “Dr. Don Merton, an adventurous wildlife biologist, and a female and male Chatham Island black robin. I loved this story from the start, as the European robin—on all the Christmas cards—is one of my favorite birds, and the black robin looks the same, except for the color. The two special birds were named Blue and Yellow for the colors of the identification bands on their legs.


Don Merton with a Chatham Island black robin. Don’s passion and ingenuity helped rescue this imperiled species from the brink of extinction. (ROB CHAPPELL)



“I was able to meet Don during a tour in New Zealand, so I heard it from the horse’s mouth, as it were. Don is one of those truly inspirational people who gives me hope for our future. He was determined to save the last of these little birds from extinction.

“The problem is that there are no natural predators in New Zealand, so when humans introduced cats, rats, and stoats, the birds were easy prey as they had no built-in antipredator response. They couldn’t adapt to that kind of threat. Don wanted to help save the species from imminent extinction, but he realized that this meant he had to somehow catch the remaining black robins and release them on an offshore island free of the introduced predators.

“By the time he got permission, and when the weather permitted him to check on them in the spring, there were only seven left. Only seven of these birds left on the planet. There were two females; and that first season, though both laid eggs, none of them hatched. These birds typically pair for life, but clearly their mates were infertile. Amazingly, though, for some miraculous reason Blue suddenly dumped her mate. She bonded with one of the three young males, they made a nest, and Blue laid the normal clutch of two eggs.

“Don told me he was in a terrible quandary. He had been involved in a successful breeding program of birds in captivity, but it involved a tricky, experimental method that also seemed rather hard on the parents—especially the mother. Did he dare take those two precious eggs away from Blue and put them in a tomtit’s nest—a little bird about the same size as the robin—in the hope that Blue and Yellow would make another nest and produce two more eggs? He told me he felt terrible as he took Blue’s eggs and destroyed that carefully made nest. The destiny of an entire species depended on whether the pair would nest again. And he would be responsible if they did not and went extinct.

“You can imagine the relief when they did make another nest and Blue laid two more eggs. And Don decided to do the same again. Another tomtit pair got two eggs to foster, and Blue and Yellow made a third nest and laid two more eggs.”

I tried to imagine how they would have snuck the eggs out from Blue and Yellow’s nest and slipped them into the other bird’s nest without being noticed. “How did they get the tomtits to foster the eggs?” I asked.

“Well, cuckoos do it to all manner of birds. Birds often foster other birds’ eggs. The real challenge happened after the first two eggs were successfully hatched. Don couldn’t just leave the baby black robins to be raised by tomtits—then they would not learn black robin behavior. He put the minute chicks into Blue and Yellow’s nest—and Yellow began feeding them. When Don took the next tiny chicks to add to the parental burden of Blue and Yellow, their third lot of eggs had hatched. The pair now had six chicks to feed instead of the usual two.