Imagine being airborne in a hot air balloon and then you constantly prick the balloon with glee and still hope to remain airborne, comfortable. with time, you will find yourself biting the dust hundred of feet beneath your former height mid-air.
Ignorance about the sustainibility of nature is quite prevalent in many African countries, especially here in Nigeria. Few people know about the relationship between other organisms and man and even fewer are ready to protect that relationship.
I was born and brought up in an agrarian society and a handful of people were hunters who depended on natures creation for their livelihood but do so, as a detrimental scale.
Animals are being hunted without regards for their sustainibility and the negative impact is known only after the damage has been done.
I do wake up to the calls of herds of buffaloes and the chatters of village weavers and cooing Ross's turacos but today, the weavers no longer have the trees to call home nor the buffaloes have any individual to lead the herd, for their is no herd to lead anymore.
A lot of people in Nigeria do not know about the need to preserve certain wildlife species and when you try to present the issues, they see you as one who is not sane.
Animals that are good for food are hunted down while those not good for consumption are termed 'evil'. As the owl cannot hoot in peace and is been hunted down, not for meat but as an adversary to man's peaceful existence, wron!
Two days back, an animal, the Calabar angwantibo or Calabar potto was caught in a locality near mine and since many do not know what it was, it got tied to a tree in the village playground and a lot of people turned out to see it.
At first, the minimally learned individuals identified it as a sloth but when it was confirmed not to be a sloth, someone brought the sugestion that it probably was a witch who has turned into the animal and was unable to change back. The notion was immediately accepted since no one can say for sure what kind of animals it was and the news spread like wildfire during the harmattan.
There is need to educate the people so as to wnd the bias against animals and help to preserve nature.
Photo taken by me
Photo taken by me
