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The sound of hundreds of joyous song birds used to be so loud as dawn approached in the Indian Peaks Wilderness in Colorado in the 1980s that it was almost deafening.
Now, many wilderness areas are silent. The climate crisis, pollution and habitat loss have taken their toll in wiping out wildlife.
Guardian readers shared their reactions to finding an absence of birds in their neighborhoods.
When I hiked in the San Juan National Forest in Colorado for several weeks in the 2000s, I was astonished to see only one wild animal, a marmot foraging in a trash can. Where were the deer, elk, moose, bears, mountain lions, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks, mink, pikas, porcupines and birds that I had seen on dozens of hikes in the 1980s and 1990s in Colorado? The only signs of life were some grasses and firs and spruce trees among many thousands of dead lodgepole pines and aspens. The silence was scary.
When I hiked in Glacier National Park in Montana twice in the 2000s, I saw suffering mountain goats panting in the heat as they stretched out on snow banks.
Wildlife that have not died out already are desperately struggling to survive as the climate crisis intensifies and their habitat is destroyed.
Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” from 1962 has arrived in frightening ways in 2024. We failed to heed her warnings, and now wild animals are doomed.
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