He Loved Creatures of the Wild

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23067, 18 June 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

He Loved Creatures of the Wild

THE cause of conservation, the attempt to preserve primitive life and beauty in the face of man-made uniformity, makes but slow progress in a world obsessed with other interests. It makes its greatest advances, perhaps, when men of unusual personality gain publicity for its claims. There is some hope for this struggling cause when a Scots-Indian trapper in North America decides to give up trapping and devote his life to the protection of fur-bearing animals, and gains thereby the applause and support of half the English-speaking world. Grey Owl is dead now, but the work he began will, with his books, be a lasting memorial. Profound Knowledge No controversy about his early life or his original name can alter the fact that the life he chose to live and write about was real enough. There are trappers who can testify to his skill as a woodsman, officials of the National Parks Service of Canada who knew his worth as a sanctuary warden, and thousands who can find in his writings evidence of profound knowledge and sincere enthusiasm. His use of the Indian name Wa-sha-quon-asin and of Indian dress and habits may have been a kind of affectation but they were a necessary part of his belief in simple and natural values. They enabled him to perfect and retain the woodcraft and hunter's skill that he used in the main to save and study the creatures of the wild. His Books In addition to magazine articles he «vote four books. It is in the second one, "Pilgrims of the Wild," that he tells the story of the most momentous events,in his iife; of his "conversion"; of the taming of two young beaver; of hardship and want resulting from his refusal to kill for gain; of his first book; and finally acceptance of the post under the National Parks Board in which he ended his days. In his last years, publicity prevented him from seeking _ solitude and there is evident in his latest book "Tales of an Empty Cabin" a 1 certain melancholy acceptance of the change. Ho has, however, in the preface to his last book, stimmed up his own aim and purpose. "And though I reach a little beyond mv stature and tbeso efforts fall far short of their high intention, even so, you who "read may perhaps find some passing interest in these stories of the people of a great Frontier, and in other tales of those more humble creatures that, though possessed of a consciousness more limited than that which man is gifted with, are fulfilling very adequately the purpose for which they were created, and are doing the best they can with what they have to do it with." Service to Natural Science It is not the intention of this article to deal with Grey Owl's contribution

By R. A. FALLA, M.A.

to literature, but rather with his service to conservation and to natural science, and * education. He has portrayed vividly the relentless extermination of fur-bearing animals under a system of destructive exploitation. On every waterway are the deserted dams and lodges of the beaver, evidence of their industry in the days when they were numerous, but in recent years only to be found here and there. None seemed to be safe from the roving trapper, and the respite of close seasons only delayed their ultimate fate. Destruction of Beaver The barbarity of the methods of recent years that led to the rapid reduction of beaver in Canada might even yet have been going on unchecked had it not been for Grey Owl's revolt. The spring hunt was on at the time the young beavers were born in May and June. As the mothers were so easily caught at that time the baby beavers were left to starve by hundreds. It is now one of the best known of true stories how Grey Owl and Anahareo adopted two such orphan beavers and, by gradually coming to know and love their little captives, became confirmed in their distaste for butchery, and their resolve to live by somg other means even at the risk of poverty. Noble Crusade We find in Grey Owl's life-work, then, primarily a noble and practical crusade for * conservation and a more humane attitude to animals. There is also to be found a more full, accurate, and intimate life-history of the beaver than was ever available before. Close observation of the tame ones revealed traits of behaviour • not hitherto suspected. Grey Owl describes "their murmurings of affection, their rollicking food fellowship not only with each other ut ourselves, their keen awareness, their air of knowing what it was all about. They seemed to be almost like little folk from some other planet whose language we could not yet quite understand. For the World to See Later, under the sanctuary conditions provided by the Government, j fearless and confiding beavers went about their ordinary affairs in ponds and streams under Grey Owl's care. In this way it was possible for a number of fortunate people to see the beaver at work, the actual cutting down of saplings, dragging them to the water, propelling them to the dam or lodge site, hoisting them into position with skill and strength, and finally cementing the whole structure with mud. It was under these conditions too that a cinema film was made, so that all the world might have a chance to see this extraordinary aquatic mammal in action. . » Lesson to New Zealand Under the title of "The Beaver Family" the Canadian Government has distributed 16 millimetre (sub-stand-ard) copies of this film and in New Zealand the Canadian Trade Commissioner has already made some of them available free to schools having facilities to show them. Perhaps some day some of our local publicity films may get beneath superficialities of sports and scenery as this one does. Canada has every reason to hold in honour the memory of Grey Owl.