Diane Ackerman Quotes

Alligators and crocodiles are some of the most aggressive creatures on the planet - they'll take down a boat if you come up to their nest.

My field is with apex predators, hence your crocodiles, your snakes, your spiders.

My neighbors are crocodiles and tigers and giraffes.

The lower animals are our brethren. I include among them the lion and the tiger. We do not know how to live with these carnivorous beasts and poisonous reptiles because of our ignorance.

General Howe turned out some German wild boars and sows in his forests, to the great terror of the neighbourhood; and, at one time, a wild bull or buffalo: but the country rose upon them and destroyed them.

I have had close relationships with three species of wild pigs, each a chance encounter on a different continent, and all continue to enrich my life in surprising ways.

'Born Free' was the first film I ever saw. I just fell in love with the idea of people having that bond with a wild animal.

Years ago, it was pretty hard to get people to empathize even a little bit with scaly, cold-blooded critters; now, thanks a lot to good PR from television, it is easier to get the message of reptile conservation and tolerance across. We have a lot to be thankful to reptiles for, not the least of which is their control of rodents.

The crown jewel of our national park system has been transformed into a hunting ground for these predators. It's just a matter of time before one of these snakes gets to a visitor.

I have made my home among the mountain gorillas.

One day, I hope to have a pot bellied pig and a wombat as pets.

Circus lions are mean. They don't know anything about affection training.

When people encroach on forest land and in the periphery of habitats of wild animals, they attack humans.

I feed foxes. I'm not supposed to, but I love it.

We may never find a way to live in suburbia with deer as we do with raccoons, say, or squirrels. So for this reason, it's very important that we make sure always to save enough wild or open land so that they can live in their normal manner.

In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.

I am fine battling lions, tigers, snakes, bulls, even hippopotamuses, but not lizards.

I've only seen one snake out in the wilderness, not behind glass, and I froze. I literally couldn't move. So to say I have a fear of snakes would be true.

I want to get a wolf and an eagle.

A world without huge regions of total wilderness would be a cage; a world without lions and tigers and vultures and snakes and elk and bison would be - will be - a human zoo. A high-tech slum.

The lion is most handsome when looking for food.

A horse perceives eye contact as provocative, as if it and its status in the herd are not being respected. If it cannot avoid eye contact, it will react in a different way, by rebelling for example. In dressage you don't get anywhere by not showing respect, however superior your species might be. Any animal trainer can tell you that. In the mountains in Argentina there's a wild horse which will jump off the nearest precipice if any human tries to ride it.

Since the law prohibits the keeping of wild animals and I get no enjoyment from pets, I prefer to remain unmarried.

A cat can never be well-trained because they're too independent.

In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.