Conservation: The Way of the Dinosaur

The Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander and the Col orado River squawfish — to say nothing of the timber wolf, the grizzly bear and the American alligator — may soon go the way of the dinosaur: to extinction.

According to Interior Secretary Stew art L. American Udall, no species — 14 fewer than 78 mammals, native 36 birds, six reptiles and 22 varieties of fish — are on the brink of vanishing from the earth forever. In almost every case, their deadly enemy is man. The Indiana bat, for instance, is in danger...