Ami Vitale: evaluation

Transcript context

…Now, you have a movie on your homepage, which I would recommend to everyone, where you’re spending a lot of time photographing and filming rhinos. Why isn’t that more dangerous than it seems to be? Well, the rhinos that I’m working with were born in captivity, sadly, and they are used to humans. I don’t recommend working with wild rhinos in the same way. Actually, these rhinos know my smell. They know who I am. I’ve been working with them now for over 15 years. But I think the saddest part of this story is the loss of a wild — there are no more wild northern white rhinos. I would say that, to me, is the biggest tragedy. I feel like it’s not just the loss of an ecosystem, which is important in itself, but to me, it’s on this other level. I feel like we are losing something so much a part of ourselves. We’re losing what it means to be wild. We are animals too. When we lose all these wild animals, we’re losing what it means to be wild. On a philosophical level, I realize it’s like a loss of wonder and the wild of who we are when we lose so many species. I’m sure all your listeners understand that we’re going through the sixth mass extinction, which is purely human-driven. To me, I feel like we’re losing a piece of ourselves right now. Kenyan villagers wish there were more elephants or fewer elephants around?…

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