30 On the trail of vanishing birds 



the interior plateau of old Mexico to a point scarcely 100 miles 

 from the Pacific Ocean. 



Today the picture is somewhat different. It is possible that 

 you still might see a pair of migrant whooping cranes at the mouth 

 of the Little Missouri, for the few members of this splendid race 

 that survive continue to fly across the country in their migrations 

 and pass very close to that location. But I wouldn't make any bets 

 on it. For these birds are now reduced to little more than a couple 

 of dozen individuals, and their breeding and wintering ranges are, 

 by comparison with their original limits, mere pinponts on the 

 map of North America. 



What has been the cause of this tragedy, and why should we 

 be concerned about it? For we are concerned; there is no denying 

 it. In the last ten years or so the welfare of the whooping crane 

 has become front-page news. Their photographs have appeared 

 in magazines of nationwide circulation, and every official report 

 of their nesting success and current numbers is sent out by the 

 wire services and printed in countless newspapers. Editorials have 

 been written about them, hopeful, earnest commentaries on their 

 precarious situation and their chances of survival. In 1952 a great 

 oil company proudly announced, in a full-page advertisement in 

 The Saturday Evening Post, that they had agreed to limit drilling 

 operations on a part of the wintering grounds of these birds as a 

 contribution toward their preservation. In addition, this same cor- 

 poration relocated a loading dock, pipeline, and access road to 

 avoid further disturbance of the wintering area. They did these 

 things at considerable cost, acting simply as "good neighbors and 

 good citizens." 



What is behind this new awareness? In a recent article in The 

 New York Times, John Oakes wrote: 



The immense latent strength of conservation as a political 

 force in the United States is becoming constantly more appar- 

 ent. People generally and that means voters are gradually 

 awakening to the fact that the natural resources of their coun- 

 try, and much of its natural beauty, have been disappearing 

 before their eyes; and, though there are constant setbacks, there 



