Realization of Nature’s Significance In Thinking Like a Mountain, the author, Aldo Leopold, writes of the importance of wildlife preservation through examples of the symbiotic relationship of animals and plant-life with a mountain. He asks the reader to perceive the processes of a mountainous environment in an unusual way. Aldo Leopold wants the reader to “think” like a mountain instead of thinking of only the immediate, or as the hunter did. Taking away one feature of an ecosystem may eventually destroy everything else that that environment is composed of. Nature and wildness is essential for the well being of life on this earth.The excerpt begins by telling of the echoing sound of a wolf’s cry. Every creature has a different perception of the meaning of that howl, while the mountain has a different view as well. A deer might be alarmed by it and flee. A hunter may become more alert and trigger-happy. All the while, it’s a comfortably soothing sound for the mountain.Leopold goes on to explain his experience as a hunter and the only time he killed a wolf. He saw the fire die in the wolf’s eyes and later realized what he had done. Before, like most hunters, he thought that by killing the wolves off there would be more deer in return. Therefore, there would be more game for the hunters. Leopold writes, “I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunter’s paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” Prior to this event, Leopold never thought to consider the destructive, long-term effects that could be made by reducing the wolf species on the mountain. He had been overtaken by the idea that hunting was sport and sport meant accomplishments, but on that one day he realized that his sport was disrupting the flow of an entire system of life.There is a symbiotic r...
