“One by one and then together the birds chanted, warbled, whistled, and cooed, like a rare desert plant bursting into life after the rain.”

“The breeze across the desert as the light died was so sweet she could almost drink it.”

“Long before the stars died the birds began to sing - cool rippling doves, loud cheery starlings, the long lilting trills of warblers and thrushes.”

“Dawn raced like fire across the savanna.”

“Faraway a leopard barked that high, dissatisfied deep roar it cuts off so sharply, as if its annoyance is too great to express, can only be appeased.”

“But wasn't that progress too, that the elephants were killed off like the mastodon and giant rhino before them, like all other wildlife and wild places? 'We can't stop time,' MacAdam said. 'But you...”

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”

“Wildness is the preservation of the World.”

“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”

“And the turtles, of course...all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.”

“The more we respect other creatures, the more respect our humanity will get!”

“She said that that was the disadvantage of bringing creatures into the house: one grew used to them, and then, one had the upset of their loss.”

“I was still excited. Big or small, elephants are elephants, after all. Just before we mounted, when I was sure no one could see me, I quickly kissed the shoulder of my beast and murmured, 'Hey, swe...”

“Southampton's barrage balloons floated gleaming in the moonlight like the ghosts of elephants and hippos.”

“At independence, Tanzania had 350,000 elephants... in 1987, there were only 55,000 elephants left.”