Flight Ways by van Dooren Thom

Author:van Dooren, Thom [Dooren, Thom van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2014-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

Juvenile Whooping Cranes in a holding pen awaiting release. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Southeast; CC BY 2.0)

But spending time with some of the creatures whom we have brought into these programs complicates this approach, along with the simple narratives of care and success that often surround it. The Whooping Crane story makes clear that extinction is far more complex than a yes-or-no, black-or-white phenomenon. More than life and death is at stake here, for both individuals and species: there are modes of living and not-quite-fully living, modes of death and dying. These are the spaces of a “wounded life” (Chrulew 2011a). By drawing the reality of captive breeding practices into the foreground, we highlight some of the other “costs” of this brand of emergency conservation, enabling us to begin to think more critically about what is at stake in bringing species into, and then holding them captive within, the dull space at the edge of extinction.

As I finalize this chapter, I have been periodically checking in on the six young Whooping Cranes that I met at White River Marsh a few months ago. As I live on the other side of the world, this checking in has been facilitated by a blog and a live-streaming “crane cam.”18 All six birds are doing well, although one has had a cough and seems to tire easily. It is hoped that before too long, all the birds will set off on their first long journey south. As in previous years, this journey will be sponsored by a combination of merchandise sales and donations. There is also little doubt that it will again capture the interest and imagination of local communities and be keenly observed and discussed as the birds pass overhead. Like all the other people involved in this project, I am hopeful for the future of Whooping Cranes. But I want also to be attentive to the particular ways in which this hope is produced. I want to encourage care for a species that has been brought to the edge of extinction; but I want also to acknowledge the, to some extent unavoidably, violent reality of the way in which much of this care for species and environments is practiced. This chapter is an attempt to advocate for hope and care of these kinds. Ultimately, I remain convinced that certain kinds of violence and suffering “should” continue, but that our modes of thinking need to be radically different—such that other, more ethical, ways of living together in captive spaces might become both visible and imperative. Dwelling within this complexity while refusing to accept ultimate justifications is the messy work of ethical conservation for our time.

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