But if you push me to the wall, I'm for zero deforestation, zero extinction. I believe we have a moral obligation to other species. The only real reason for saving them is that it's right. I lie in my hammock draped with white mosquito netting and become a cocoon. I try to sleep but am kept in a semiwaking state by our guides talking softly in Sranan Tongo, a lingua franca mixture of English, Dutch, Portuguese and West African languages, and by the chirping of frogs and birds.
Insects make a sound like an endless marimba.
I am certain that I hear an animal poking around under my head. Mittermeier confesses that even after all his years of experience, he has never become accustomed to the night sounds. The collective howl begins like a low siren in a fire station, rises to swallow the sky, then ebbs again. It makes you feel alone in the world, like the first human being ever to hear it. Later, we head back to base camp and go for a swim in the river, where Mittermeier proves that scientists are different from you and me.