Emotional About Emotions
I don't get it. Your article "Natural Passions" [September/October] purports to say that wild animals have emotions, the same way people do. If we are to buy that far-fetched idea, then we must begin to think of animals as the same as people, and not as the lesser species that they are. Every religious tradition tells us there is a difference. Don't get me wrong. I have two cats and a corgi, and I love animals--but people, they ain't.
Linda Underwood
Detroit, Michigan

Your story on animal emotions plays right into the hands of anti-hunting fringe groups: Animals have emotions; therefore, they're the same as people. From that, we must conclude that hunting animals is like committing murder, right? You might as well have published a manifesto to buttress the views of the most far-out animal rights groups.
Sam Dollop
Tucson, Arizona

The balance in Laura Tangley's article on the politically charged issue of animal emotions is extraordinary and the scientific evidence she cites compelling. The article raises the sorts of interesting ethical and intellectual questions that must inevitably result when scientists break new ground. Give us more fair-minded, thought-provoking articles like this.
Edith A. Willington
Cleveland, Ohio

Your article on animal emotions did make the point that it is very easy to be fooled. Amen. What looks like an emotion may be something quite different. Scientists and lay people alike have to be very careful about ascribing meaning to a look or action that might be instinctual and have nothing to do with emotions. Since we can't get into the animal's head to really know what is going on, we must make assumptions. And that is a dangerous thing to do, especially for scientists, who ought to know better.
Garner J. Hoffman
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Do animals experience sadness, even in memory? In 1983, in Masai Mara National Preserve [in Kenya], I saw an elephant family, in social rank formation, approach the remains (hide and bones) of a young elephant killed by lions. When the matriarch reached the site, every member halted in place. Then she advanced one step and with the tip of her trunk nuzzled every bit of the deceased's remains. Completed, she stepped a pace or so aside, and the next in line repeated the ritual, and so on to the end (one or two, who attempted to jump rank, were whopped back into line by the matron's trunk). The ceremony completed, the matriarch led her family into the sunset.
Lloyd Clyburn
Georgetown, Florida

People With Passion
The November/December stories about Valmik Thapar of India, Igor Shpilenok of Russia and Carl Jones of Mauritius Island were fascinating and inspiring. I was amazed how each one of these men showed how a person with passion and guts can make a difference fighting for wildlife and natural habitats. The writing quality was superb as each of these featured persons came alive off the page.
Joe Friedman
Boulder, Colorado

Ho Chi Minh's Dream
At the height of the Vietnam War, President Ho Chi Minh left Hanoi and traveled 100 kilometers south to inaugurate what had long been his dream: the Cuc Phuong National Park. Since then, this island of wilderness has remained, preserving pristine rain forest, limestone forest and precious fauna found nowhere else in the world ["Vietnam's Wildlife Repairman," July/August]. And now President Ho's successors have proposed to shatter his dream.

The Ministry of Transport wants to construct a three- to five-kilometer overpass through the national park and is confident that there will be no obstruction. Nobody informed the director or staff of Cuc Phuong. They submitted their comments to the politburo, with their own proposal for a bypass around Cuc Phuong, and have not even received the courtesy of a reply.

A bypass would cost more. But what's the price of wilderness? What's the price of Ho Chi Minh's vision? The world is interested and is becoming concerned. Vietnam holds Cuc Phuong in trust as a piece of international heritage: If it betrays that trust, its reputation as an environmentally concerned nation will be lost.
Colin Groves
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia

Correction
In our pelican story in September/October ("Send Them All Packing!"), we identified researcher Ido Izhaki as a graduate student. He is actually an associate professor.

How to Write Us
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