In my story, Bentari loves animals. He gets the biggest charge out of watching and listening to all the animals in the forest. He studies them so closely that he can mimic their calls. He can tell the purpose, too, of their different squawks and noises. In play, he laughs with his winged and his furry friends. Bentari did not know that one day his life would depend upon his mimicry. One day, he would need an answer from a wild boar that, in play, he would never dream of calling!

Here is a true story about a man who, in geological terms, lived not so very long ago, in a land that was not so very far off. This man watched and listened to animals, too.

Renowned scientist Alfred Russell Wallace[1] died 100-years ago (1823 – 1913). He was a Charles Darwin collaborator in the work to explain life in the natural world. Both men believed that animal species developed over time in reaction to their environmental surroundings in a process they called natural selection.

Mr. Wallace visited the Indonesian island Sulawesi. While there, Wallace observed many species, like maleo birds, that are found nowhere else on Earth. He saw how maleos take advantage of the island’s geology to increase the survival of their young. Maleos lay their eggs in the warm ground and let Mother Earth take care of incubating. These colorful, large birds can tell where hot springs heat the soil to just the proper temperature. After 8-weeks, the babies hatch, dig themselves out or their earthy cribs, and then they fly off straight away without a single lesson from their parents. Lucky thing, too, since monitor lizards would love to dine on maleo eggs or hatchlings, if only they couldn’t fly so soon, and if only the eggs were laid in nests instead of underground!

Wallace observed in 1863:

"Future ages will certainly look back on us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of wealth as to be blind to higher considerations."

150-years ago, Wallace predicted the perils that extinction would pose for maleos and their co-inhabitants on Sulawesi. He knew that humans possessed the ability to save them. He only hoped that “pursuit of wealth” could be set aside so that these beautiful creatures would not "perish irrecoverably from the face of the earth, uncared for and unknown."

My young hero Bentari did not pursue wealth. His riches were counted in laughter, tears, and love. But he was wealthy. And he learned of this wealth at a cost most high.

Images: Naturalist A.E. Wallace, Maleo (with apologies to the unknown artist), Poacher-turned-conservationist Karamoy Maramis (images from NPR’s website-see footnote)

[1] Read about Mr. Wallace and listen to the “Morning Edition” story at: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/30/177781424/he-helped-discover-evolution-and-then-became-extinct