Considering the Zoo

Few people have heard of the pig-footed bandicoot or the great amakihi. Certainly no one will ever see them alive. These animals became extinct in the first decade of the twentieth century. Should it be of any concern that we will never know anything of the huia or the black mamo? Were they just inconsequential creatures, saddled with strange names, like the snail-darter? Does it matter that our children will never watch an orange-breasted flower-pecker or an African forest schrew?

—David Hancocks, A Different Nature

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All Good Things are Wild and Free

Estelle Tang

Spring 2013

Considering the Zoo

Embrace Australia’s finest writers

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Considering the Zoo

Embrace Australia’s finest writers

Essays

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