As the years passed orchid hunters, ravished the orchids, the bromeliads were stolen and alligator hunters reduced the 'gators to a rare and endangered few. About the same time, in far away India, a friend of mine told me about a huge croc that lived in a river. He was old and wary. He had been hunted so long and so intensely that he had become wise. No one could find him even although they knew he was close by.
Animals are wise and beautiful.