Beloved beasts : fighting for life in an age of extinction / Michelle Nijhuis.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [275]-319) and index.

Aesop's swallows -- The botanist who named the animals -- The taxidermist and the bison -- The hellcat and the hawks -- The forester and the green fire -- The professor and the elixir of life -- The eagle and the whooping crane -- The scientists who escaped the tower -- The rhino and the commons -- The few who save the many -- Homo amphibius.

"In the late nineteenth century, as humans came to realize that our rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving other animal species to extinction, a movement to protect and conserve them was born. In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the movement's history: from early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to today's global effort to defend life on a larger scale. She describes the vital role of scientists and activists such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson as well as lesser-known figures in conservation history; she reveals the origins of vital organizations like the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund; she explores current efforts to protect species such as the whooping crane and the black rhinoceros; and she confronts the darker side of conservation, long shadowed by racism and colonialism. As the destruction of other species continues and the effects of climate change escalate, Beloved Beasts charts the ways conservation is becoming a movement for the protection of all species-including our own."--book jacket.