Quotes About Wildlife

I have walked in a mountain meadow bright with Indian paintbrush, lupine, and wild buckwheat, and I have seen high in the branches of a lodgepole pine the male pine grosbeak, round and rose-colored, its dark, striped wings nearly invisible in the soft, mottled light. And the uppermost branches of the tree seemed very slowly to ride across the blue sky.

I don't want visitors." "We're not visitors. We're bears.

I want to be alone . . . said no bear ever. —The Traveler's Guide to Changelings (Revised Edition: 1897)

I would tear them apart with my bare hands to save my baby April. I wonder if all mothers feel this way. Suddenly I knew why it is so dangerous to mess with a bear with cubs or any wild animal with babies. I am part and parcel with them when it comes to that. Lord, there is a mountain lion side of me I never knew before.

The first time Dr. Santos encountered the small, pink-faced monkeys, she was hooked. She tells the story of how one day she was sitting alone on the beach eating. A monkey came by and sat beside her with a piece of monkey chow. The two sat together eating.

I am she who lifts the mountains When she goes to hunt, Who wears mamba for a headband And a lion for a belt. Beware! I swallow elephants whole And pick my teeth with rhinoceros horns, I drink up rivers to get at the hippos. Let them hear my words! Nhamo is coming And her hunger is great. I am she who tosses trees Instead of spears. The ostrich is my pillow And the elephant is my footstool! I am Nhamo Who makes the river my highway And sends crocodiles scurrying into the reeds!

You wild, dear creatures!

In late summer, when sprays of purple loosestrife, goldenrod, and ripening cranberries burst into color along the old road cutting through the Great Marsh of West Barnstable on Cape Cod, the air vibrated with the drumbeat of cicadas, the caws of seagulls and geese.

The night birds were calling.

California was open and free, with purple mountains and salty brown-water beaches and dying palm trees and lavender jacaranda trees. Liberated green parrots found refuge in California, squawking as loud as they could on power lines in the early morning hours. Coyotes roamed the streets at night during the occasional downpour. Brown bears bathes in swimming pools and mountain lions stalked hiking trails. It was a magical place where anything was possible. That was home.

In Yellowstone National Park there are more 'do not feed the animals' signs than there are animals you might wish to feed.

Rick's dream, though he seldom described it as such, was to someday tell a story so good that the people who heard it simply wouldn't want to kill wolves anymore.

Can a wolf in the wild experience what we know as joy and happiness?" Rick said, his voice breaking noticeably. "And my answer is yes.

The science was on Smith's side, but it didn't seem to matter to ranchers and hunters, or to state legislators. The debate wasn't about science anymore, if indeed it ever had been.

Elk inspired people; they were a symbol of everything that was special about living here.

Super Croc" is the nickname of Deinosuchus, a crocodile relative that lived about 75 million years ago. With a length of nearly 40 feet and remarkably powerful jaws, it was capable of killing and eating dinosaurs, though it may have munched more often on sea turtles.

Forests are the elixir of life

That's not hunting," I wrote, "that's just shooting.

As a Park Ranger I will protect and serve you...But we'll never be friends. Is that going to be a problem? The tarantula stopped, its front pair of legs feeling the air.

Just as they had followed the buffalo across the plains, wolves now followed it, in a few short years, to the brink of extinction.

If nothing else, wolves are masters at decoding intentions.

Ex-governor Walter Hickel, decrying the interference of wolf advocates (many of them Outsiders) in the issue two decades ago, put it best, with this unintentionally comical, landmark statement: "You can't just let nature run wild.

He squinted thoughtfully, then grinned. "Actually, I thought having him around was pretty cool. People, not the wolf, were the real management issue, and for the most part, they acted in a respectful and responsible manner.

Research and eyewitness anecdotes show that mated wolves do indeed form till-death-do-us-part monogamous bonds that equal any in the animal kingdom and put many human commitments to shame.