AFTERWORD
Mass destruction. The phrase has become so commonplace, we hardly register the meaning anymore. Yet consider the accumulated weight of facts contained in Deadly Beautiful. Mass destruction is a precise description of this catalogue of worldwide loss of habitat, wholesale extinction of species. The deaths of individual humans have been accorded their dignified due in these pages. The far higher level of risk faced by people in developing countries has not been glossed over. Realistically, though, the combined impact of all the dangerous animals on humans as a species pales into insignificance when compared with the threat we pose to them.
At the end of the introduction, I spoke of two meanings of the word ‘respect’. I will close the book with a third that shadows this subject. The phrase ‘paying your respects’ means the awkward platitudes we offer the bereaved in acknowledgement of those who have died. It is my heartfelt hope that Deadly Beautiful contributes to increasing practical knowledge of the actual level of threat posed by dangerous animals, as well as a profound respect for their intrinsic right to continue existing. Once bereft of these beautiful creatures, no amount of ‘paying our respects’ will bring them back.