operation at St. Joseph Hospital, I drove down Sixth Avenue and heard the

roaring of the lions in the cages at the Exposition then being held in Balboa

Park.

I turned to my brother, Paul, who was riding with me, and half jokingly, half

wishfully, said, "Wouldn't it be splendid if San Diego had a zoo! You know ...I

think I'll start one."

Wegeforth's idea, with the help of other interested San Diegans, would take

shape and prosper over the years. Even as a child, growing up in Baltimore,

Maryland, he was fascinated by animals. He regularly staged "circuses" in

his backyard, using toy animals and stitched-together flour sacks for a "big

top" tent. This interest went far beyond normal childish play, because young

Harry had done extensive research on the real-life behavior and

characteristics of his animal menagerie and enthusiastically explained all

of this to visitors at his "performances."

Later on, as an adult, Wegeforth obtained a medical degree and moved to San

Diego in 1908 to set up his practice. The work of building the Zoo, however,

was soon to consume almost all of his time. It was a gamble and a dream that

he lived daily, but a task he relished.

Together with four other men—Dr. Paul Wegeforth, Dr. Fred Baker, Dr. Joseph

H. Thompson, and Frank Stephens—Wegeforth founded the Zoological Society of

San Diego on October 2,1916. In 1921, the City of San Diego granted the

Society its present home in Balboa Park, and, by 1922, Wegeforth, a few staff

members, and a small collection of animals had begun moving in.

Even at this early date, Wegeforth was promoting a zoo that was different

from most in existence at that time, including demerits that would, as years

passed, result in its being called the "world's greatest zoo." For example,

he envisioned a zoological garden where animals could be integrated with

plants in pleasing settings with no bars or traditional cages to obstruct a

visitor's view. He promoted the idea of grotto and moat enclosures—something

just being tried in European zoos and almost unknown in America.

While riding around the Zoo grounds on his Arabian stallion, Wegeforth would

map out in his mind the location of exhibits. Mesas would hold hoofed

mammals, reptiles, and birds; the canyons would be reserved for bears and

cats. In Johnny Appleseed fashion, he scattered and planted seeds for the new

plants he desired. Roads that were laid out for the first bus tours are still

used today.

To supplement the initial group of animals gathered from the Balboa Park

Exposition, Wegeforth made collecting trips to other countries and other

zoos, both here and abroad. His aggressive style of exchanging local animals,

such as rattlesnakes and California sea lions, for more exotic species soon

earned him the title of "Trader Wegeforth." Other animals were donated to the

Zoo from private individuals or Navy ships that docked in San Diego and

brought "gifts" to Dr. Harry's Zoo.

Through personal vision, determination, his own financial contributions, and

those of others, Harry Wegeforth created the San Diego Zoo. To the uninformed

observer of the time, it might have seemed that he realized his dream from

almost nothing. Indeed, some of the early exhibits were built from castoffs and

discards from other construction projects — things that he could acquire for

free4 much as he had built his play menageries as a child. He

cajoled local wealthy citizens to help him by arousing their' concern for the

animals and their city pride. One of his greatest benefactors was newspaper

heiress Ellen Browning Scripps, who, by the time of her death, had donated some

quarter of a million dollars to the project.

Wegeforth's concern about animal nutrition and health is additionally

noteworthy. While not trained as a veterinarian, he nonetheless applied his

medical knowledge to the care of Zoo animals and brought in others trained to

assist him in this work. This care was reflected in the Zoo's low animal

mortality figures.

One day a tiger, writhing in pain with what his keepers suspected to be

intestinal problems, needed immediate treatment. As a result of his

condition, they considered him too dangerous to rope and tie down for

examination (this was an era before the tranquilizer dan gun). Wegeforth

sized up the situation and entered the animal's enclosure with a handful of

beneficial tablets. The animal crouched, made ready to leap, and opened his

gaping jaws to unleash a ferocious roar. At that instant Wegeforth tossed

several of the pills into his mouth. Surprised at this action, the tiger

backed off momentarily, swallowing the medicine. Not one to back down, the

tiger again gathered himself in a crouch, opened his cavernous mouth, and

prepared to pounce. Once more Wegeforth administered the medicine, and this

time the animal retired to his water basin to wash down the irritating pills.

Such examples of Wegeforth's "make do" philosophy of animal medicine made for

popular conversation among early Zoo employees.

In April of 1927, just over ten years after the Zoo's founding, he succeeded

in opening the Zoological Hospital and Biological Research Institute, a major

contribution to the further achievements of the San Diego Zoo. This facility

was yet another gift from Miss Scripps.

The Zoo Lady

Also in 1927, the Zoological Society hired its first executive secretary,

Mrs. Belle Benchley, an individual who would share Wegeforth's dream and

assist him with his goals and plans. She had come to the organization as a

bookkeeper in 1925, but soon proved so adept that Wegeforth began using her

as his primary assistant. Among other things, he encouraged her to be the

Zoo's public relations spokesperson, speaking at civic luncheons—a job she

did reluctantly at first but soon mastered. Her work earned her high praise

over the years, and following Wegeforth's death in 1941, she took over

management of the Zoo.

It was in large part due to Mrs. Benchley that the San Diego Zoo began to

achieve a national, even worldwide, prominence. Her books about life at the

Zoo, published during the 1940s, made many new friends for the organization.

They included My Life in a Man-made Jungle (1940), My Friends the

Apes (1942), My Animal Babies (1945), and Shirley Visits the

Zoo (1946). Mrs. Benchley's continued care and concern for the Zoo animals'

welfare prompted one zoo expert to remark that the San Diego Zoo was "the only

zoo in the world that is run for the animals."

Among Mrs. Benchley's more famous accomplishments was the arrival at the Zoo

in 1949 of Albert, Bata, and Bouba, a male and two female western lowland

gorillas from French West Africa. All less than a year old, these gorilla

babies captured the hearts of San Diegans, who lined up by the hundreds to

see them. Their first day on exhibit a crowd of some 10,000 arrived, setting

a new Zoo attendance record.

The Schroeder Years

Following the retirement of Mrs. Benchley in 1953, Dr. Charles Schroeder

became director of the Zoological Society in January of 1954. He was the

Zoo's first leader with a scientific background in animal care. Dr.

Schroeder received his doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Washington

State University in 1929 and had initially been hired at the Zoo as a

veterinarian/ pathologist in 1932. But, as he often recalled, he performed

many other duties as well, such as taking photographs to sell to visitors as

postcards.

It was through Dr. Schroeder's vision and persistence that the San Diego

Zoo's sister facility, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, came into existence

and later opened to the public in 1972. As director of the Zoo until 1972, he

was also responsible for many other now well-known Zoo attractions, including

the Skyfari aerial tramway, the Children's Zoo, and the moving sidewalk or

escalator. He further increased the Zoo's commitment to research and

remodeled its hospital.

It was also during this period that the local television show "Zoorama" was

created, with its first airing in January 1955. Later syndicated nationally,

the program brought the San Diego Zoo into the homes of millions of viewers

across the nation.

Into the Present

The history of the San Diego Zoo in recent years has been one of a new

awareness of the role of zoos in our world. Under the able leadership of new

directors and members of the board of trustees, the Zoo has become

increasingly concerned with captive breeding and the conservation of

wildlife. Consequently, a number of conservation projects have been

established, both at the Zoo and Wild Animal Park as well as elsewhere around

the world. The first international conference on the role of zoos in

conservation was hosted by the San Diego Zoo in 1966, during the celebration

of the Zoo's 50th birthday. In addition, the Zoological Society presented its

first conservation awards that year.

Perhaps the most outstanding of the Zoo's conservation projects has been the

Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (CRES). Launched in 1975 as an

intensive research effort to improve the health and breeding success of

exotic animals, CRES is dedicated to its primary goal of helping endangered

species of animals reproduce and survive, both in captivity and in the wild.

Some of the achievements CRES is most proud of have included gratifying

reproductive successes with cheetahs, Indian and southern white rhinoceroses,

and Przewalski's wild horses.

THE ANIMALS OF EURASIA

Eurasia is the largest land mass on earth, stretching halfway around the

globe from the British Isles to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Bering Sea

south to the tip of Malaysia, an area of 54 million sq km (21 million:sq -

л»ХА few of its animal species, especially those in the north, are closely

related to, and in some instances are the same as, those of North America.

Relatively recently, as earth time is measured, Eurasia was linked to America

by a land bridge which spanned what is now the Bering Straits. This causeway

existed for thousands of years during the Ice Ages, when much of the earth's

water was locked up in glaciers, thus lowering sea level. Animals crossed

back and forth between the two continents on the land bridge, and the first

human settlers in America probably arrived via this route.

About ten thousand years ago, the latest in a series of ice ages came to an

end. The ice melted; the seas rose, and the Bering land bridge was submerged.

Animal species which had wandered west into Eurasia or east to America were

isolated from their native homelands. But because ten thousand years is a

mere eye wink in evolutionary timekeeping, very few changes have had time to

take place in these exiles. For example, the largest member of the deer

family lives in the taiga of both Eurasia and America. In Eurasia it is

called an elk, in America, a moose. But it is one and the same animal. This

is also true of another deer, the caribou, or reindeer. The former is a wild

animal of America; the latter has been domesticated for centuries by the

Lapps of northern Europe.

The Bering land bridge was probably responsible for the survival of at least

one species — the horse. This animal originated in the western hemisphere,

where it developed from a tiny, three-toed creature, to the form very much

like the one we know today. During the Ice Ages, it migrated across the land

bridge into Asia, where it thrived. In America the horse became extinct and

didn't reappear here until the Spaniards brought it back as a domesticated

animal in the 16th century.

The Spanish horses, as are all domestic breeds, were descendants of the wild

horses which migrated from America. That original breed still exists. It is

called Przewalski's horse, named for the naturalist who first brought

specimens to Europe from the grasslands of Mongolia. This is the only true

wild horse left in the world. All other so-called "wild" horses are feral

animals, that is, horses descended from domestic animals which escaped from

or were released by their owners. Przewalski's horses once existed in large

herds, but human intrusion into their habitat pushed them farther and farther

back into a harsh environment where even these tough animals could not

survive.

They were last seen in the wilderness in 1967. Fortunately breeding groups

existed in zoos and reserves. Captive propagation brought the population up

to about 700 by 1985, and four dozen Przewalski's horses have been born at

the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Several of the

Zoological Society's Przewalski's horses are on breeding loans to other

zoos.

The Eurasian bison, called a wisent, is closely related to the American

bison. Although never so numerous as the American member of the species,

wisent used to roam the forests which covered western Europe. Centuries of

cutting destroyed all but a small remnant of these forests and came within 17

animals of exterminating the wisent. A captive breeding program saved them

and today a few hundred live in the Bialowieza Forest in eastern Poland. The

San Diego Zoo has produced 25 calves.

If the felling of Europe's forests meant the destruction of many wild animal

species, it worked to the advantage of others. Deer, for instance, have

thrived and live from the British Isles eastward. Red, roe and fallow deer

live in western Europe, sika deer in Japan. Pere David's deer, formerly a

native of marshy areas in central China, is extinct in the wild. It exists

only in zoos and reserves.

The hedgerows of western Europe house many small animal species. There are

foxes, rabbits, hares, badgers, ferrets, squirrels and birds. These and other

animals have adapted to life in a human-dominated environment. Starlings and

sparrows, for example, do so well that they are considered "pest" birds.

Until recently, one of Europe's largest birds, the white stork, even nested

in the smaller towns and villages. The bird was considered a symbol of good

luck, and home-owners built platforms on rooftops for its nests. This

practice is no longer common and the stork avoids the towns.

The most regal of Eurasia's raptors is the golden eagle, and the bird has

figured in history for centuries. Its image was carried by Roman legions as

they conquered much of the continent. During the Middle Ages, lesser members

of royalty were free to use other raptors for falconry, but the eagle was

reserved for the king. Today, in more remote parts of Asia, the golden eagle

is used to hunt wild goats, gazelles, foxes, and wolves. The bird occurs in

the United States, where it is under federal protection. It can be seen in

San Diego's back country and often is observed soaring over the San Diego

Wild Animal Park.

Several other northern Eurasia predators are found in North America —

falcons, hawks and owls; mammals including wolves, wolverines and foxes. a

However, two mammalian predators are unique to I the Old World — leopards and

tigers. Leopards range i from northern Asia into Africa; tigers live only in

Asia I from Manchuria southward into India and Malaysia. There are five races

of this great cat; all of them are endangered. The Zoo enjoys considerable

success breeding and raising Siberian tigers, of which the total world

population is only about 750 individuals. More than two dozen cubs have been

born and raised at the Zoo.

South of the taiga, Eurasian biomes become less clearly defined. Much of the

area is flat and treeless. In the west, where rainfall is adequate, grass

grows thickly. But deep in the continent's interior, the land becomes a

desert. Here, thousands of miles from the moderating effects of the ocean,

temperatures can climb well above 38°C (100°F) in summer, and plummet far

below freezing in winter.

Animals must make drastic adjustments to these climatic extremes. One of the

most common is migration. Herders move their domestic herds and flocks,

following the seasons, and many of the wild grazers also make similar

journeys, with predators following along.

The animals which are permanent residents have adapted to the heat, cold and

aridity of this area. The saiga, an antelope-like animal, has nostrils

pointing downward to help keep out dust. Inside each of its nostrils the

saiga has a sac which is believed to warm and moisten the air.

The Bactrian camel of Mongolia and China has adapted to its environment by

growing a thick, shaggy, winter coat; broad, split hooves to keep from

sinking into the sand; and two humps for storing fat when foraging is poor.

Several species of wild asses are native to the interior of central Asia.

Among these are the Mongolian kulan and Iranian onager. Asses are smaller

than true horses and characterized by long ears, deep-set eyes coarse, wiry

manes, small feet and tails tipped with long hairs. They can survive longer

without water than other members of the horse family and are able to get

along on a small amount of food. Because of their sure-footedness and

endurance they are valuable beasts of burden and have been domesticated for

centuries.

The Eurasian grassland is home to the heaviest of all flying birds, the 20 kg

(45 lb) great bustard. And the world's smallest crane, the demoiselle which

stands just 1 m (39 in) tall, breeds on grasslands from southeastern Europe

into central Asia.

Several species of wild sheep and goats live on the grasslands and adjacent

mountains. Markhors and turs, both goats, range from Spain to India and

northward into Mongolia and Siberia. The tahr, a goatlike animal, is found in

the high Himalayas. Goats differ from sheep in that they have beards, feet

with scent glands, convex foreheads, and a definite odor among the males.

Some of the world's most unusual mammals live in the mountains which separate

central Asia from India. One of the best known is the giant panda, once

considered a member of the raccoon family and now thought to be related to

bears. This animal lives on a diet consisting mainly of bamboo shoots. For

unknown reasons the bamboo is dying, which threatens the pandas' future. The

Chinese government has commissioned a team of biologists to study the

situation. Although giant pandas have rarely reproduced in western zoos, a

number of babies have been born in the Beijing zoo through natural

conception, and artificial insemination has recently been successful.

The giant panda shares its bamboo forest with the lesser panda. This animal

looks like a raccoon but is related to the giant panda.

Central Asia is isolated from India and Burma by the Himalaya mountain range,

the highest mountains on earth. The area is so remote that little is known

about the behavior of many of its animals. It is the home of a collie-sized

gazelle, several species of wild sheep, and a member of the cow family, the

yak. The yak is also domesticated and has been a beast of burden and supplier

of milk, wool and fuel for many centuries.

One of the most beautiful of all Himalayan animals is the snow leopard, or

ounce. Its fur is in great demand and poaching has placed it in grave danger

of extinction.

The snow leopard's main prey is the bharal, or blue sheep, which lives in the

Himalayas and other high mountains in eastern Asia.

As one moves south from the high country, the character of the land and its

animals change. Rugged mountains give way to forested foothills. This country

is the northern edge of the sloth bear's range which also includes other

parts of India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Termites are a part of the sloth

bear's diet, and it sucks them in by a "vacuuming" process. The bear rips

open the termites' nest with its claws, then blows away the dirt and dust,

and starts sucking. Its lips protrude; its nostrils close to keep out dirt.

Beyond the foothills, seasonal forests give way to semi-arid plains and

desert in India. Axis deer, nilgai (India's largest antelope) and blackbuck

live here. In the Gir Forest is the last remnant population of the lions

which once roamed from the Atlantic through the Near East and into Asia. But

lions have been gone from most of this range for many centuries and exist

today only in a protected reserve in the tiny Gir Forest in western India,

where a few hundred individuals survive.

Where one finds lions and other predators, scavengers will also be found. In

India they include striped hyenas, foxes, dholes (wild dogs), and Indian

white-backed vultures. These animals perform a vital function in the balance

of nature, cleaning up carrion left by the hunters, thus helping to prevent

the spread of disease.

Still farther south lies India's tropical forest, actually two of them — a

rain forest and a seasonally deciduous forest. They are home to a large

variety of monkeys, mainly of two groups — the short-tailed, stout-bodied

macaques, which are primarily terrestrial, and the long-tailed, slender-

bodied arboreal langurs.

The macaques include the rhesus monkey of India, sacred to the Hindus, and

critical to science. The existence of the Rh blood factor was first

demonstrated in rhesus monkeys, and a rhesus was the first living being shot

into space in the United States' space program. In Europe, the only wild

monkeys are the Barbary apes, actually macaques, of Gibraltar. Legend has it

that when these animals disappear — there are approximately 30 of them —

Britain's reign over the Rock will come to an end.

The second large group of Asian monkeys, the lan-gurs, are also called leaf-

eating monkeys. There are more than a dozen species, among which the douc

langur is considered to be one of the most beautiful of all monkeys. The word

"douc" means "monkey" in Vietnamese.

Three of the surviving five species of rhinoceroses live in southeastern

Asia. Two, the Sumatran and Javan rhinos, could be extinct in the wild. The

third, the Indian rhino, exists in small numbers in Assam. Because of the

heavy folds of skin and the bumps, called tubercules, on its hips and

shoulders, this rhino appears to be wearing a suit of armor.

The Chinese believe that rhino blood, urine, and horn (which is not a true

horn at all, but is composed of hair-like material) have medicinal and

aphrodisiacal powers. This superstition has resulted in heavy poaching of

rhinos, placing them in grave danger.

Among the better-known snakes of southeastern Asia are the Indian and king

cobras and the pythons. A king cobra can measure 3.5 m (12 ft) or more. It

feeds mainly on other snakes. The closely related Indian, or Asian, cobra is

appreciably smaller. The pythons are non-venomous constrictors. Contrary to

popular belief they do not crush their victims to death but, through

constriction, cause death through suffocation.

Southeastern Asia is the home of some of the showiest of all birds — the

pheasants. Although native to Asia, they have been introduced elsewhere and

now are among the most widely distributed of birds. One of the most

widespread is the ringneck pheasant. An old legend claims that ringnecks were

introduced into Greece by Jason, famous for his quest of the golden fleece.

Ringnecks were brought to the United States in the mid-1800's and are now

game birds. Several species of pheasants are exhibited at the Zoo, two of

them roaming freely on the grounds.

The first is the blue peafowl. The male, called a peacock, is the traditional

symbol of vanity and false pride because of its almost constant displaying

and strutting. The peafowl has been semi-domesticated for ages. A Greek myth

relates how the bird got the eye-like spots on its tail. The peacock was a

favored pet of Juno, wife of Jupiter. She became angry at her one-hundred-

eyed servant, Argus, because of a misdeed on his part. To punish him and to

make sure the world remembered his offense, she snatched out his hundred

eyes and scattered them on the tail of her pet peacock. There they remain to

this day.

The other pheasant that wanders the Zoo grounds is the junglefowl. It looks

much like a domestic chicken — understandably since it is the chicken's

ancestor.

Anthropologists think the chicken was first domesticated about 4000 B.C. as

a fighting bird. Evidence suggests that the first chickens in the New World

came with Polynesian sailors. The most ornamental of all domestic chickens

are the long-tailed birds bred by the Japanese, some having tail feathers 6 m

(20 ft) long.

The hot, humid rain forests of southeastern Asia hold a profusion of

wildlife, much of it arboreal. Among these tree dwellers, primates reign, and

within this group, the anthropoid — manlike — apes are royalty. Two of

earth's four kinds of manlike apes live in southeastern Asia.

The smallest and most agile of these are the gibbons and siamangs. These apes

are light-bodied, long-armed and have long, slender hands. Their generic name,

Hylobates, means "tree dweller." They are truly champion acrobats, swinging

hand over hand and leaping more than 9 m (30 ft) from one branch to the next.

On large branches they usually walk upright, holding their arms aloft for

balance. Gibbons live in family groups of two to six animals within well

defined territories. Their morning whooping, often heard at the Zoo, is a

territorial call to warn off other gibbons. The second anthropoid of

southeastern Asia is the slow, retiring orangutan. Its name means "old man of

the forest," and the orang does seem the most human of the apes. Unlike the

gibbon, it is a loner. The species used to be widespread throughout the islands

of southeastern Asia but extinction came early on all but Borneo and Sumatra.

If we read the evidence correctly, prehistoric man hunted orangutans for food

and could have been partly responsible for their disappearance from most of

the range. Today fewer than 5,000 individuals remain, and despite strenuous

efforts to save them, their numbers continue to drop. The forests they need are

falling to the ax, so if the species survives, it will be in zoos and wildlife

reserves.

Among the rain forest's arboreal creatures, there are a number of interesting

"flying" animals — snakes, frogs and lizards. None of these animals actually

flies. They glide with varying degrees of aerodynamic facility. The snake

spreads its ribs and arches its body to produce a crude airfoil that allows

it to glide at a steep angle. The other animals have folds and strips of skin

which, when stretched, produce taut membranes that slow descent.

The second largest of all land animals, the Asian elephant, lives in the

tropical forest. A bull can weigh 5,000 kg (11,000 Ib) and stand 2.5 to 3 m

(8 to 10 ft) tall at the shoulders. Asian elephants have been domesticated

for centuries — for riding, war, and as beasts of burden.

The Asian elephant's only natural enemy is the tiger. Although this cat

attacks elephants, especially calves, it also preys on just about anything it

can catch, including the crocodiles that live in the forest's sluggish

rivers. One of its chief prey is the Malay tapir.

Tapirs originated in the New World, crossed on the land bridge into Asia and

now exist on both continents. The obvious difference between Old World and

New World tapirs is the large, white saddle-shaped patch of hair on the Malay

tapir's body. American tapirs are a solid brown color.

Of the many species of birds in the tropical forest, among the most bizarre

are the hornbills. There are 45 species, distributed throughout tropical and

subtropical Africa and Asia. One of the bird's more fascinating behavioral

habits is the manner of nesting. In most species of hornbills, when the

female is pregnant and ready to lay, she enters a natural cavity in a tree.

She and the male plaster over the cavity's opening with a mixture of

droppings, mud and regurgitated food. They leave a narrow opening just wide

enough for the female to poke her beak through, but too small for predators

to enter. The plastered wall hardens, and the female, her eggs, and later the

chicks, are safe. The male spends the time feeding his mate. When the

nestlings are half-grown, both parents chip away the wall and the female

emerges. She then helps her mate feed the baby birds, which remain in the

nest until they are fledged. During the time the nest is occupied, it is kept

clean and disease-free by insects and microscopic scavengers.

THE ANIMALS OF THE AMERICAS

North and South America comprise the only continuous land mass that reaches

from the north to south polar regions, a distance of more than 14,500 km

(9,000 mi). The combined area of the two continents is 41.4 million sq km (16

million sq mi), in which are found all terrestrial biomes.

The two continents have been joined for the past two or three million years.

Earlier South America was an island, set apart from the northern land mass

for at least 60 million years. This gave time for animal species unique to

the continent to evolve. After the Isthmus of Panama emerged, there was an

interchange of animals between North and South America, much as that

experienced by Eurasia and America during the Ice Ages. One of the animals

found in both Eurasia and America is the polar bear. Its habitat is along the

entire Arctic coast. It has even been sighted hunting seals on ice floes

hundreds of miles at sea. The polar bear's heavy coat insulates it from the

icy water and air. Thick hair growing between its toes keep it from slipping

on the ice. The thick, white pelt made the animal a prized trophy and reduced

its population. The bear is now protected throughout its range.

The musk ox, resident of the far north, also has had to be protected from

excessive hunting. At one time it came very close to extinction. A member of

the cow family, the musk ox has adapted to the bitter cold by developing a

heavy, shaggy coat consisting of two parts — a coarse outer covering of long

guard hairs and a soft inner coat so dense that neither cold nor moisture can

penetrate.

Musk oxen form a defensive ring when threatened. Adults stand along the

perimeter, heads and horns pointing out, and the calves cluster together

inside. This defensive posture works well against the ox's chief enemy,

wolves, but is of little avail when high-powered rifles are the enemy.

Wolves prey on many species in the north — musk ox, caribou, moose, deer,

hares, and even rodents. These carnivores are among the most maligned of all

animals, victims of false myths and legends and systematic programs of

extermination. They are accused of attacking humans and destroying entire

herds of domestic animals. But their depredations of livestock are less

severe than often claimed. And unprovoked attacks by healthy wolves in North

America on humans are unknown. Those recorded from Europe's Middle Ages are

thought to have been made by rabid animals or hybrids.

The world will be a far lonelier place if the last wolf dies. As biologist

Ernest P. Walker wrote in his book, Mammals of the World, "The howl of

the wolf and coyote, which to some people is of more enduring significance than

superhighways and skyscrapers, should always remain a part of our heritage."

Some Arctic wolves remain snow white year round, an adoption to their

environment. Three other predators of the far north— the snowy owl, Arctic

fox, and weasel— are white at least part of the year.

The life cycle of the snowy owl demonstrates the close relationship which can

exist between predator and prey. This owl hunts hares and lemmings. When

these mammals are plentiful, female owls lay clutches of seven to ten eggs.

When the food supply drops, only one to three eggs are laid.

Lemmings are among the most plentiful animals of the far north. These tiny

rodents, found throughout the Arctic, are characterized by wide fluctuations

in population. When vegetation is plentiful, the lemmings' numbers

skyrocket. This population density seems to trigger a drive to migrate.

Hordes of lemmings move out. Nothing deters them — swamps, forests, lakes,

rivers. Eventually some reach the sea, which seems just one more obstacle.

They plunge in, swim out, and drown.

Each summer the far north comes alive with the millions of birds which have

migrated from the south to mate, build nests and raise their young. Waterfowl

make up the majority of these migrants. Shore birds, pelagic birds, geese and

ducks abound in the short Arctic summer. Some have come thousands of miles.

The champion migrant is the Arctic tern, which flies • 16,000 km (10,000 mi)

from the Antarctic, and in autumn flies back again.

When the birds leave the Arctic at the end of summer, they follow ancient

flyways south. One of the flyways follows the Pacific coastline from Alaska

to California. Small ponds and estuaries along the coast resound to the

gabbling of hundreds of ducks.

The southern edge of North America's tundra borders on the taiga. Here

wildlife tends to stay on the forest's edge, in meadows, along streams, on

lakes and in old burns. Grass, sedges, and willows grow most profusely in

these openings.

The lakes of Wood Buffalo Park in Canada's taiga are the summer nesting sites

of the whooping crane, the rarest of all cranes and the object of a decades-

long conservation effort. In 1949 there were only 21 left out of a population

which once ranged from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains. With complete

protection, the population rose to 109 birds by 1979. Eighty-three lived in

the wilderness; the others were captives.

Twice a year the wild birds migrate a hazardous 4,000 km (2,500 mi) from

their nesting grounds in Wood Buffalo Park to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge on

the Texas coast. The possibility of a major storm or devastating disease

striking this flock is a threat which makes biologists shudder. One of the

basic rules in the management of an endangered species is to spread the risk.

A daring experiment was undertaken with the whooping cranes. Eggs were

removed from nests in Wood Buffalo Park for artificial incubation and

placement under setting sandhill cranes, a related, more plentiful species.

The artificially incubated eggs are hatching and producing birds that are

raised in captivity. Several whooping cranes have been hatched and are being

raised by their foster parent sandhills in Idaho. If the experiment succeeds,

a new flock of whooping cranes will have been produced, one which migrates a

much smaller distance, over a different route, than the original group. A

fringe benefit of taking eggs is that it stimulates the female bird to

continue laying, thus generating more than the usual number of clutches per

year. The most common grazing animal of the American coniferous and deciduous

forests is the white-tailed deer. In the far West, it is replaced by the mule

deer. There are actually more deer now in North America than when Europeans

first arrived, because of the clearing of forest land, plus game management.

Bears once occurred throughout the forests of America north of Mexico. The

world's largest is a brown bear, the Alaskan or Kodiak. The grizzly, also a

brown bear, has been known to launch unprovoked attacks against humans.

American black bears are quite common in much of their range — practically

all the wooded areas of North America north of central Mexico. They usually

occur in their familiar black color phase, but also have been known to be a

cinnamon color, brown, and even blue. The rare blue or glacier bear occurs

only in southeastern Alaska, where there are about 500 left.

South of North America's taiga is the immense grassland known as the Great

Plains. This covers most of the continent's interior and stretches 3,900 km

(2,400 mi) from southern Canada deep into Mexico. It is prairie country, a

seemingly flat land, devoid of trees excepting along the river courses.

Almost all of the original grasses were plowed under for the raising of

crops, and of the tremendous number of wild animals which once lived there,

practically nothing remains. As the naturalist Peter Farb wrote, "Not even

the eastern forests have suffered the almost complete destruction that

European man has brought to the grassland."

The story of the American pronghorn, the only "antelope" native to the New

World, illustrates his point. When Europeans first settled in the Western

Hemisphere, there were an estimated 50 to 100 million pronghorn on the

plains. Four centuries later by the turn of the 20th century, only 20,000

were left. Today, through strenuous conservation efforts, the prong-horn is

safe, although consigned to a small fraction of its former range.

Another example of what happened to the plains' wildlife concerns a "dog."

Before the Europeans came, hundreds of millions of rodents, called prairie

dogs because of their dog-like call, lived in underground "towns" from

southern Canada to Mexico. One such system of burrows in Texas covered more

than 65,000 sq km (25,000 sq mi) and contained approximately 400 million

animals. With the coming of civilization, the burrows were plowed under and

the animals poisoned. Few prairie dog towns still exist.

As the prairie dogs disappear, they are taking with them at least one of

their predators, the black-footed ferret. This member of the weasel family

has prairie dogs as its prime food. It has become overspecialized and is

caught in an evolutionary trap.

North America's arid areas occur in the southwestern United States and parts

of Mexico. Large grazers and browsers include bighorn sheep, mule deer and

javelinas, also called peccaries. Hawks, foxes, owls, coyotes, and several

species of reptiles are among the carnivores. Among them, the coyote is one

of the few which has thrived in the face of human intrusion into its habitat.

Not only has it maintained its former range; it has expanded it.

One of the resident birds of the North American southwest is the roadrunner,

a member of the cuckoo family. Primarily a ground bird, it can run at speeds

of up to 24 kmph (15 mph). Its diet consists of lizards and other reptiles

which it kills by repeated blows from its heavy beak. If prey proves too

large to swallow, the roadrunner ingests a bit at a time. The birds can be

seen dashing along the desert with snakes or lizards hanging from their

mouths.

The world's smallest owl, the 14 cm (5 1/2 in) high elf owl, also is a

resident of the American desert. This tiny predator uses the hollowed-out

nests of woodpeckers, located in cactuses, as its home.

The desert also has its reptiles, including many species of lizards, plus

two of the four poisonous snakes of North America — the rattlesnake and coral

snake.

Rattlesnakes are pit vipers, a group of reptiles which also includes the fer-

de-lance, bushmaster, water moccasin, and the copperhead The pit is an

opening below the snake's eyes which contains a heat-sensing organ.

Only two of North America's lizards are poisonous — the gila monster and

Mexican beaded lizard. Unlike poisonous snakes which inject their venom

through hollow fangs, these lizards bite their victims, hold on, and allow

poison to flow into the open wound from fangs which are grooved at the rear.

The coastlands and adjacent lands of the United States are the habitat of a

wide variety of reptiles, birds and mammals. Water moccasins and copperheads

are found in the warmer portions, and the largest of all North American

reptiles, the alligator, lives in the rivers and bayous of the southeast.

Alligators can be distinguished from the closely related crocodiles by their

broader heads and the lower teeth which are out of sight when the mouth is

closed. A crocodile's teeth are visible at all times.

There are no authenticated cases of wild alligators attacking humans.

Crocodiles, on the other hand, can attack people.

Many species of shorebirds live in North America. One of them, the brown

pelican, came close to extinction on the continent because of DOT. The

pesticide was sprayed and dusted on croplands, then percolated into the

ground water and was carried to sea where it entered the ocean's food chain.

The pelicans, being ultimate consumers, got heavy doses. Although the

chemical didn't kill them, it did weaken the shells of their eggs. The result

was few pelican hatchlings. After DDT was banned the pelican population began

to grow again. In 1979, 1,200 nests were counted in California, a remarkable

comeback.

Marine mammals of the U.S. Pacific coast include four species of pinnipeds —

members of the seal group. They are elephant seals, harbor seals, Steller sea

lions and California sea lions.

South of the United States and northern Mexico, the character of the land and

its wildlife changes. Desert, chaparral, and plains give way to tropical

forest. In places rainfall exceeds 500 cm (200 in) annually, and a mild

average temperature of 27°C (81°F) prevails.

As in most rain forests, primates dominate. In America they consist of dozens

of species of monkeys and marmosets. New World monkeys are only distantly

related to those of the Old World. Many species have prehensile tails, a

feaure lacking in the Old World monkeys. This "fifth hand" is especially well

developed in the spider monkey.

Not all of the rain forest's primates have prehensile tails. Marmosets of the

forests of Panama and the Amazon basin lack it. And the uakari has a mere

stub of a tail, making it the only short-tailed New World monkey.

South America is home to approximately 40 percent of the world's birds, and

most of them live in its rain forest. Two groups of rain forest birds are

among the most colorful in the world — the hummingbirds and parrots.

Known as "living jewels," hummingbirds are found only in the New World, where

they live from southern Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. However, they are

primarily tropical birds. There are 319 known species which range in size

from the world's smallest bird, the 57 mm (2 1/2 in) long Cuban bee hummer,

to the giant hummingbird of the high Andes, measuring 216 mm (8 1/2 in) in

length.

A second group of colorful rain forest birds, the parrots, are distributed

worldwide in the tropics and on all lands in the southern hemisphere

excepting the southern tip of Africa and some of the more remote Pacific

islands. In the New World, they reach northward into southern Arizona and

New Mexico, where they are represented by occasional visits of the

endangered thick-billed parrot.

The only parrot native to the United States is now extinct. In the early 19th

century, the Carolina parakeet ranged from North Dakota and central New York

south to eastern Texas and Florida. It was especially abundant in the

Mississippi River bottoms and along the Atlantic seaboard The little bird was

slaughtered for sport and to control its depredations on fruit crops The last

one was sighted m the Florida Everglades m the early 1920 s

In addition to its wealth of birds, the South Amen can rain forest is the

home of a wide variety of other animals The world s slowest mammal, the sloth

which spends long periods hanging upside down from tree branches, is a forest

dweller So are opossums, anteaters, poisonous frogs, jaguars, tapirs, and

several snakes, among them the anaconda, the world s largest An anaconda can

measure more than 9 m (30 ft) in length Its prev includes the world s largest

rodent, the hog sized capybara, and the caiman, South America s counterpart

of the alligator

To the west, the rain forest terminates at the Andes, the mountain ranges

stretching the length of South America The highest point m the western hemi

sphere, 7,000 m (22,834 ft) tall Mt Aconcagua, is m the Andes

America s smallest deer, the pudu, and one of the world s largest flying

birds, the Andean condor, live in these mountains Probably the best known of

Andean animals are the guanacos, vicunas, llamas, and alpacas, New World

relatives of camels, which are found at high elevations. Llamas have been

domesticated as beasts of burden since pre-Columbian times; vicunas and

alpacas are prized for their high-quality wool.

The cold water off South America's west coast is rich with plankton, a link

in a food chain which reaches up through fish and ends with the millions of

sea birds living on the South American coast and nearby islands. Among them,

the guanay cormorant breeds in enormous numbers. Cormorant rookeries are not

particularly pleasant places for humans. They reek of droppings, dead birds

and regurgitated food, and there are flies everywhere. The droppings, called

guano, make a superb fertilizer and are harvested commercially in Peru and

Chile.

South America's grassland is called the pampas. Although similar to the

Great Plains of North America, the pampas never was home to the vast herds of

wild animals which once roamed North America.

One of the world's large, nonflying birds, the common rhea, lives on the

pampas. It was once hunted by gauchos on horseback for its tail plumes, which

were used as dusters. A second species, Darwin's rhea, roams the Andean

foothills from Peru to Bolivia and south to the Straits of Magellan. It is an

endangered species.

The pampas' predators include foxes, skunks, rattlesnakes, hawks, and one

which is found only in South America, the rare maned wolf. This mammal looks

more like a fox than like a wolf. It is solitary, nocturnal, and wide-

ranging. It hunts small mammals, birds, and reptiles and also eats fruits and

other plant material.