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The Sixties: Animal Ecology

This guide covers the decade 1960 - 1970

Overview

"Unless we preserve the rest of life, as a sacred duty, we will be endangering ourselves by destroying the home in which we evolved." -- Edward O. Wilson (Juniper, p.146)

Previous to the 1970s, there wasn't a widespread concern for our fellow creatures on Earth, except among indigenous people. And the art and music of the times reflected that. Fortunately, as the environmental movement has grown, this attitude has changed ,and we see the change in our culture and our art. Much of the music and film selected on this page reflect that desire for humanity to live in harmony with our fellow creatures and to care for them.

Animal Ecologists

Events

  • 1824. SPCA founded in England.
  • 1903. President Theodore Roosevelt creates the National Wildlife Refuge System.
  • 1918. Migratory Bird Treaty Act enacted.
  • 1952. Fred & Norah Urquhart establish The Monarch Watch, enlisting volunteers to monitor the monarch butterflies' migration.
  • 1957. First satellite heralds new technologies in wild life tracking.
  • 1960.1960. The Monarch Butterfly by Fred & Norah Urquhart published.
  • 1960. Arctic National Wildlife Preserve named a federal protected area.
  • 1960. Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson.
  • 1960. Jane Goodall begins her study of chimpanzees in Africa.
  • 1961. WWF (World Wildlife Fund) founded.
  • 1963. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat.
  • 1966. A moratorium on humpback whaling put into effect.
  • 1966. Animal Welfare Act passed.
  • 1966. The North American Breeding Birds Survey begins. 
  • 1967. Endangered Species Preservation Act enacted.
  • 1967. Dian Fossey goes to Rwanda to study mountain gorillas.
  • 1968 - 1975. The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau television documentaries.
  • 1969 Birute Galdikas goes to Indonesia to study orangutan.
  • 1973. Endangered Species Act passed.
  • 1975. Peter Singer's Animal Liberation published.

Endangered Species

Photograph from the mid-1870s of a pile of American bison skulls waiting to be ground for fertilizer.
Source: Wikimedia.com

According to Gilbert King in the Smithsonian Magazine online in 2012, "By the end of the 19th century, only 300 buffalo were left in the wild. Congress finally took action, outlawing the killing of any birds or animals in Yellowstone National Park, where the only surviving buffalo herd could be protected. Conservationists established more wildlife preserves, and the species slowly rebounded. Today, there are more than 200,000 bison in North America."

The Ten Trusts

According to Jane Goodall, these are the Ten Trusts that we must honor as custodians of the planet.

  1. Rejoice that we are part of the animal kingdom.
  2. Respect all life.
  3. Open our minds, in humility to animals and learn from them.
  4. Teach our children to respect and love nature.
  5. Be wise stewards of life on Earth.
  6. Value and help preserve the sounds of nature.
  7. Refrain from harming life in order to learn about it.
  8. Have the courage of our convictions.
  9. Praise and help those who work for animals and the natural world.
  10. Act knowing we are not alone and live with hope.

Source: The Ten Trusts by Goodall & Bekoff.

Organizations Founded in the 1960s & 11970s

  • American Cetacean Society
  • Cousteau Society
  • Elsa Wild Animal Appeal
  • Jane Goodall Institute
  • Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
  • The World Wildlife Fund

American Endangered Species of 1967

This is the first list of American endangered species given federal protection in 1967, thanks to the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1967. Some have recovered. Some are on their way to recovery. Some have completely disappeared:

  • Akiapolaau (of the Hawaiian honey creeper family), slowly increasing in population.
  • Aleutian Canada goose, recovered.
  • American alligator, recovered.
  • American ivory-billed woodpecker, several credible sightings.
  • Apache trout, threats reduced or eliminated.
  • Attwater's greater prairie-chicken, no longer in the wild.
  • Bachman's warbler, claimed sightings not officially accepted.
  • Big Bend gambusia, still in danger.
  • Black toad, taken off the list
  • Blue pike, extinct
  • Blunt-nosed lizard, still declining
  • California condor, recovering.
  • Cape sable seasid sparrow, recovering
  • Clear Creek gambusia, still in danger
  • Colorado pikeminnow, recovering
  • Columbian white-tailed deer, still threatened
  • Comanche Springs pupfish, still vulnerable.
  • Crested honeycreeper,  recovering.
  • Cui-ui, improving
  • Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel, thriving.
  • Desert dace, recovering.
  • Devils Hole pupfish, recovering
  • Dusky seaside sparrow, extinct
  • Eskimo curfew, no confirmed sighting
  • Everglad snail kide, still endangered.
  • Florida manatee, recovering, still threatened.
  • Florida panther, still in danger.
  • Gila topminnow, recovering
  • Gila trout, downlisted to threatened.
  • Greenback cutthroat trout, recovering
  • Grizzly bear, recovering.
  • Hawaiian common gallinule, still threatened
  • Hawaiian crow, continues to decline in the wild.
  • Hawaiian petrel, recovering.
  • Hawaiian duck, recovering.
  • Hawaiian goose, recovering.
  • Hawaiian hawk, proposed removal from the list.
  • Humback cluib, recovering.
  • Indiana bat, being decimated by disease.
  • Kauai Akialoa (of the honeycreeper family). no sightings.
  • Kauai Nukupuu honeycreeper, endangered stilll.
  • Kauai Oo forest bird, endangered still.
  • Key deer, still endangered.
  • Kirtland's warbler, recovering.
  • Laysan duck, recovering.
  • Laysan finchbill, recovering.
  • Little Colorado spinedace, still in peril.
  • Maryland darter, possibly extinct
  • Masked bobwhite, improving.
  • Maui Parrotbill, recovering.
  • Mexican duck, removed from list.
  • Moapa dace, recovering.
  • Montana westslope cutthroat trout, thriving.
  • Nihoa finch, threatened.
  • Nihoa millerbird, threatened.
  • 'O'u bird, unknown status.
  • Owens pupfish, still threatened.
  • Pahrump poolfish, still threatened.
  • Paiute cutthroat trout, still threatened.
  • Palila honeycreeper, still in danger.
  • Puerto Rican parrot, thriving. 
  • Red wolf, recovering.
  • San Francisco garter snake, recoveing.
  • San Joaquin kit fox, continuing to decline.
  • Santa Cruz long-toed salamander, recovering.
  • Small Kauai thrush, recovering.
  • Sonoran pronghorn, recovering.
  • Southern bald eagle, removed from the list.
  • Texas blind salamander, recovering.
  • Timber wolf, thriving.
  • Tule white-fronted goose, unknown status.
  • Whooping cranes, recovering.
  • Yuma clapper rail, recovering.

Additional References

Goodall, J., & Bekoff, M. (2003). The ten trusts: What we must do to care for the animals we love. New York: HarperCollins World.
Juniper, T. (2019). The ecology book. NY, NY: DK Publishing.
King, G. (2012, July 17). Where the Buffalo No Longer Roamed. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-the-buffalo-no-longer-roamed-3067904/