Ravens Versus Tortoises

A few years ago, I visited the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California, to visit the wolves (my daughter adores wolves).

While there, I noticed a sign about the importance of protecting the endangered tortoises. One of the threats to their survival is ravens.

And the thought popped into my head that I personally like ravens way more than I like tortoises, so why should I care about the tortoises?

Before you worry that I am some callous freak, let me hasten to add that I do in fact care about tortoises because I care about endangered species, but what are we supposed to do, start murdering the ravens? I wanted to ask the zoologists to at least give me a reason why tortoises are more important than ravens.

It’s possible that the explanation is self-evident to someone who isn’t me, but I have been mulling this over for literal years and I still can’t see it.

As a developmental editor for fiction, I’m constantly asking authors to show the motivation for characters’ beliefs and actions, as this is what helps create the kind of conflict that engages readers’ attention. In this case we have ravens versus tortoises and we’re supposed to be on the side of the tortoises. But why?

Sometimes I wonder if I take my work too far when I’m out in the real world, which has consistently shown itself resistant to the type of editing that would make it a lot easier to understand.