Matthew Peeler's Blog

Extreme conservationists are truly a different breed of people. This however is not a bad thing as it takes a different kind of person to put in the effort required to be successful in their efforts. I personally consider myself a conservationist as every time I enter into the outdoors, I try to leave it better than I found it in some way; not just for a particular animal but for all animals. Whether it is simply picking up a small piece of trash or doing a major habitat improvement project, conservation efforts are conservation efforts. In the last chapter of his book, Last Chance to See, Douglas Adams talks about a pair of conservationists they meet on the Island of Mauritius by the names of Carl Jones and Richard Lewis. Adams proceeds to describe the “obsessive passion” that they have for the conservation of birds on the island. In my opinion, this passage has a strong effect on the reader from the standpoint of understanding what conservation is really all about. Like I mentioned earlier, conservationists are a different type of person and to an individual who is not familiar with conservation, a conservationist may seem a little crazy in the head. The passage on page 183 however sheds things into a different light. It explains how hard Carl and Richard had worked to try to help the birds in their area. The text sums their hard work ethic into one sentence by stating,

“They loved them with an extraordinary fervour, and had devoted their entire adult lives to working in the field, often in awful conditions and on horribly low budgets, to save rare birds, and the environments they live in, from extinction.”

This excerpt from the text puts what a true conservationist is into perspective. With this passage, the reader is able to understand the hard work that goes into conservation. It can be debated why Douglas put this passage into the book but I believe it is to prevent the reader from thinking conservationists are lunatics. On pages 179-182, when the reader is first introduced to Richard and Carl, it appears that these two individuals are simply crazy. One if the first conversations that takes place is about why Adams wants to stay for only two days and then fly to then island of Rodrigues to look for a rare fruit bat for ten days. Richard pesters him into staying by bugging and bugging him to stay there for ten days and opposed to going to Rodrigues for ten days. Adams finally gives in when Richard comes close to taking out another car while driving down the road due to the fact he was so adamant about Adams staying that he was not even paying attention to the road. Like I said, this simply appears crazy but with a further, more humanized explanation later in the text, the reader realizes that these conservationists are not really crazy but they are passionate about what they do, just like all conservationists.