Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Windswept Helmet Orchid.

Species Information 02:05

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is a critically endangered flowering plant native to Australia, in the state of Tasmania, specifically Macquarie Island in the far southwest Pacific. Its scientific name is Corybas dienemus and it was first described in 1993.

 

Description

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is a small orchid growing only about an inch and a half tall when flowering. They have a very short stem and grow just a single fleshy rounded leaf, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, with a dark green upper-side and a pale silvery-green underside.

 

The Windswept Helmet Orchid grows just a single very unusual looking flower, with translucent green and purple-redish coloring, that is roughly an inch wide and an inch tall. The flower has a wide elongated upper sepal. Sepals are the outermost, generally green, petal-ish/leaf-ish structure, at where a flower meets its stalk. And in the case of the Windswept Helmet Orchid the upper sepal, the dorsal sepal grows over the top of the flower; this is the helmet that gives the plant their name. The orchid also grows two upward pointing lateral sepals which are very thin, wiry, kind of antenna looking structures, each roughly an inch in length. They are very strange looking, kind of snail-like, or alien. And oddly beautiful.

 

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is deciduous and they shed their single leaf each winter to conserve energy. They also have robust storage tubers among their underground root system that provide sustenance throughout the harsh winter, and provide energy for new growth in the Springtime.

 

In the Spring, in September and October, here in the southern hemisphere, new leaves emerge from underground. And then in late Spring, early Summer, individuals produce their single flower.

 

Reproduction

The Windswept Helmet Orchid reproduces both sexually and asexually. So sexually: the flowers are monoecious, having both male and female reproductive structures. Recent research suggests the flowers are pollinated by small fungus gnats believed to be attracted to the flower’s color and shape which may mimic the appearance of fungi or decaying organic material. And so these fungus gnat get a dusting of pollen which they then transfer to another individual, cross-pollinating. Following pollination, in late summer and autumn, this is January to April, the flower develops into a small, capsule fruit. And the usually low-lying plant rapidly grows a longer stalk, up to an additional 3 inches in height, lifting the seed capsule above the surrounding mosses and grass, to help facilitate seed distribution via wind dispersal.

 

The Windswept Helmet Orchid also reproduces asexually, cloning itself, producing small colonies of individuals that share identical genetics. This vegetative reproduction works like this: the base of the quote unquote mother will send out horizontal stems, runners, called stolons, at or just beneath the soil surface. Points along the stolon, grow new “daughter” tubers, thick nutrient storage roots, that then separate off and grow into a new independent plant. And while this does not ensure genetic diversity, vegetative reproduction does allow the Windswept Helmet Orchid to spread, increasing their overall population, extending its survival, and increasing the likelihood of potential sexual reproduction in the future. Some colonies of Windswept Helmet Orchid have persisted for multiple decades.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

A winter drowsing, an ancient patience with the long dark quiet,

A cold that softly holds the promise of a warming spring.

 

And then, invisibly at first, that stillness shifts

The wind rests, the snow thins,

The bog thaws,

And the brittle ice is soothed.

 

And the gears that govern the timeworn compromise

Between life and sleep and death, tick another notch.

 

And visibly now, the stillness shifts

The shearwater returns, the shadows shorten

The sea cow moans out her pup,

And new shoots push up through the softening soil

 

Today an empty slate

Tomorrow flecked with green

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Windswept Helmet Orchid is native to Australia’s Macquarie Island, a remote, far southerly island in the southwest Pacific Ocean, governed by the state of Tasmania, located roughly 1000 miles south of the mainland and 1000 miles north of Antarctica. This is a subantarctic tundra bioregion with a maritime climate of cool temperatures, regular precipitation, and very strong winds. 

 

Macquarie Island is only 20 miles long, and 3 miles wide and its landscape is rugged and rocky, with low-growing vegetation and a central plateau pocked by deep glacial valleys. This plateau rises about 1,300 feet above sea level, with steep cliffs at the coasts. And the Windswept Helmet Orchid is found on these lower coastal terraces, only 100ft above sea level in damp peat bogs with a water table close to the soil surface. 

 

The climate is very cool year-round. Summer highs average in the low 40s°F, winter lows in the teens. Annual precipitation averages approximately 40 inches, with rain or snow occurring roughly 300 days a year. Strong westerly winds are also consistent throughout the year.

 

Windswept Helmet Orchid shares their subantarctic island home with:

Brown Skua, Button Fern, Grey-Headed Albatross, Macquarie Cabbage, Antarctic Bedstraw, Tussock Grass, Southern Rockhopper Penguin, Macquarie Island Daisy, Antarctic Tern, Elephant Seal, King Penguin, Willowherb, Sooty Shearwater, Shield Fern, Wandering Albatross, Blue Petrel, Clubmoss, New Zealand Pennywort, Fur Seal, Alpine Water Fern, Buttercup, Northern Giant Petrel, Kelp Gull, Royal Penguin, Gentoo Penguin, Water Chickweed, Shore Stonecrop, and many many more.

 

Threats

Historically, human introduced invasive species have directly impacted the Windswept Helmet Orchid’s population as well as contributed to the general degradation of their habitat. Rabbits, brought to the island as a food source for humans over 200 years ago, rapidly multiplied and expanded. Their overgrazing affected plant populations throughout the island and their burrowing undermined the root systems of native vegetation which in turn accelerated erosion.

 

In the early 2000s the Australian and Tasmanian governments initiated an eradication program, to clear the island of rabbits, rats and mice, and in 2014, after 7 years of effort, the program is considered a huge success, clearing over 150,000 invasive rabbits and rodents. And there has been significant recovery of native vegetation, since; A 2024 Australian Department of Climate Change report comments: “With grazing pressures removed, the island is returning to its former lush, green glory.”

 

Today, the main threat to the Windswept Helmet Orchid is human-induced climate change. A 2015 study showed significant shifts in weather patterns on Macquarie Island since the 1970s. Key weather systems have moved southward, resulting in stronger, more frequent winds and an increase in the frequency and severity of cyclone storms. And so the island has seen an increase in annual precipitation, particularly in winter. But despite this increased rainfall, the windier weather is also increasing surface evaporation, especially in the summer. So overall the windier, drier conditions have resulted in a kind of drought. For example, from roughly 1995 to 2012, there was not enough water available to the native vegetation, resulting in significant noticeable mortality across plant species on Macquarie Island.

 

Conservation

Fortunately, the Windswept Helmet Orchid has been legally protected since 2009. Their entire habitat falls within the protected Macquarie Island Nature Reserve and World Heritage Area. Macquarie Island was first declared a protected wilderness in 1933.

 

Today, there is a small offsite cultivation program at the Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens. There is a collection of seeds banked at the Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre. And federal and local governments have active research and monitoring programs, tracking Windswept Helmet Orchid population health and habitat stability.

 

Nevertheless the Windswept Helmet Orchid has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2013 and their population is generally in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 8000 Windswept Helmet Orchid remain in the wild.

Citations 19:12

Information for today’s show about the Windswept Helmet Orchid was compiled from:

 

Bergstrom, D.M., Bricher, P.K., Raymond, B., Terauds, A., Doley, D., McGeoch, M.A., Whinam, J., Glen, M., Yuan, Z., Kiefer, K., Shaw, J.D., Bramely-Alves, J., Rudman, T., Mohammed, C., Lucieer, A., Visoiu, M., Jansen van Vuuren, B. and Ball, M.C. (2015), “Rapid collapse of a sub-Antarctic alpine ecosystem: the role of climate and pathogens.” Journal of Applied Ecology, v.52: 774-783. – https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12436

 

Clements, Mark & Jones, David. (2007). “A new species of Nematoceras and characterisation of N. dienemum (Orchidaceae), both from subantarctic Macquarie Island.” Telopea. v. 11. –  https://doi.org/10.7751/telopea20075739 

 

Cockel, C. 2013. Nematoceras dienemum. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T44392794A44533262. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T44392794A44533262.en

 

de Lange, P.J. (2025). “Corybas dienemus Fact Sheet.” New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. – https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/corybas-dienemus/ 

 

Skotnicki, M. L., G. R. Copson, J. Doube, L. Gadd, J. M. Selkirk-Bell, and P. M. Selkirk. 2009. “Biology and population studies of two endemic Nematoceras (orchid) species on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.” Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 143 (2): 61-71. – https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/64591663

 

Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. (2007). Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project: Operational Plan for the Eradication of Rabbits and Rodents from Macquarie Island. Department of Tourism, Arts and the Environment. - https://www.dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/publications/eradication-rabbits-and-rodents-subantarctic-macquarie-island 

 

Threatened Species Section. “Listing Statement for Corybas dienemus (windswept helmet-orchid)”. Hobart: Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania, 2017 – https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Corybas%20dienemus%20listing%20statement.pdf

 

Threatened Species Section (2017). “Threatened Tasmanian Orchids Flora Recovery Plan”. Hobart: Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water & Environment, Tasmania – https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Accepted-Orchid-RP.pdf 

 

Visoiu, Micah. 2019. Flora Values Assessment and Monitoring Report - Macquarie Island Nature Reserve and World Heritage Area - March 2019. Nature Conservation Report 19/01. Hobart: Natural and Cultural Heritage Division, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. – https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Macquarie%20Island%20Vegetation%20Assessment%202019.pdf

 

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corybas_dienemus

 

For more information about Windswept Helmet Orchid conservation, please see the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service at https://parks.tas.gov.au.

Music 20:56

Pledge 26:34

I honor the lifeforce of the Windswept Helmet Orchid. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Windswept Helmet Orchid I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Bahamian Hutia.

 

Species Information 02:05

The Bahamian Hutia is a critically endangered mammal, a rodent, native to the Bahamas archipelago in the Caribbean region, in the Atlantic Ocean. Its scientific name is Geocapromys ingrahami and it was first described in 1891.

 

Description

The Bahamian Hutia is a small to medium sized rodent, weighing about one and a half pounds, and measuring about a foot in body length with a short two inch tail. They are covered in a fine, soft, fur ranging in color from grayish, brownish, reddish, to black. Their undersides are paler, a creamy tan color. 

 

They look like perhaps a mix between a gerbil and a large mouse with a compact, study, somewhat rounded body. They move low to the ground, with four short strong limbs each with five toed feet, the digits ending in sharp curved claws. The hindlimbs are longer and stronger than the forelimbs, and they’ll sit upright, on their baskside and hindlimbs. Their forelimbs are particularly dexterous, adept at manipulating food. The soles of their feet are rough fleshly pads; for traction in navigating uneven and slippery surfaces.

 

They have a squat rounded muzzle, with large dark eyes, small arched ears, and fine whiskers at the end of their snout.

 

Behavior

The Bahamian Hutia is nocturnal, emerging and active from dusk until midmorning, roughly 10am. And then daytime is spent at rest in small caves, in crevices, or sheltered under leaf litter or in dense vegetation. This behavior, remaining inactive during the sunlit hours, is to minimize heat stress during the hottest parts of the day, as opposed to predator avoidance. In fact, in its native habitat, the Bahamian Hutia does not have any natural predators.

 

Lack of predator threat may in part explain their generally gregarious social behavior. Bahamian Hutia live in highly dense colonies, sharing feed sites and their caves and hollows, with very rare aggressive altercation. Colonies have been observed to have high site fidelity, groups repeatedly returning to the same locations, but low territoriality. They do not defend their territory with threatening behavior or violence. Even interactions between different colonies, who may have overlapping home ranges, are peaceful. Distinct colonies will feed in the same area without altercation. And within the colonies, there do not seem to be hierarchies of dominance, like divisions of leader and follower. In their restricted habitat (they live on a very small island), the hutia have adopted cooperative and tolerant behaviors, as opposed to competitive, violent behaviors.

 

This social cohesion is maintained through a variety of communication strategies. Researchers describe “nearly constant” soft vocalizations; chirps, whistles, low grunts, and quiet chortles when the hutia forage together. Physical touch is frequent, so mutual grooming, and playful (non-aggressive) wrestling are used to maintain social bonds. And olfactory communication. The Bahamian Hutia scent-mark locations with their urine, but unlike many mammals that use scent as a warning or to define territorial boundaries, the hutia employ this olfactory signaling to recognize group members and demarcate communal spaces.

 

Reproduction

Colonies consist of multiple intergenerational family units, and the Bahamian Hutia form long-term and possibly lifelong pair bonds. Mating takes place through-out the year, there does not seem to be a peak mating season. After mating mothers gestate their young for 4-5 months, and generally give birth to a single offspring. The pups are born precocial, already covered in fur, with eyes open, able to consume solid food within a day or two and only nurse for about two months. That said, the young stay with their family group for two plus years, learning to forage, developing their communication skills, and integrating into the social structure.

 

We have some evidence of communal rearing and caretaking. Researchers describe a scenario in which they captured a young hutia to tag and track it. Throughout, the pup vocalized a distress call, a sharp squeak, which drew a crowd of adult hutia, more individuals than would be in a single family group, so these are other unrelated adults drawn to the research site; the adults gathering and vocalizing in defensive response, until the pup was safely released.

 

Pups reach reproductive maturity at two years of age. And Bahamian Hutia have an average lifespan of roughly 6 years in the wild, though have been documented living as long as 9 years in captivity.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

A dream for my species,

May we, humankind, share our territories without threat or violence.

May we act peaceably, when our home ranges overlap.

May we disband hierarchies of dominance.

May we reject territoriality.

May we adopt cooperation and tolerance not competition and brutality.

May we gather to protect our young,

And the young of our neighbors.

 

In the dream.

————

Diet

The Bahamian Hutia are herbivores, foraging for leaves, shoots, fruit, nuts, and bark. Their diet includes more than 40 plant species, including Wild Dilly, Pigeon Plum, Prickly-Ash, Sea Lavender, and Sweet Potato. Though foraging mainly on the ground, they will stand on their hindlimbs to reach leaves and even climb small distances up into shrubs and trees to reach fruits, bark, and new shoots at the tips of higher branches.

 

The Bahamian Hutia have specialized adaptations for their very dry environment. They have a much lower metabolic rate as compared to other rodent of similar size, and can regulate their metabolism, slowing it down when water is scarce. In general they are able to meet their drinking water needs entirely through feeding, making efficient use of the water content in the vegetation they consume. They are even able to survive drinking salt water for up to about a week. These are vital adaptations for their arid habitat.

 

Habitat

The Bahamian Hutia is native the Caribbean region, to the Bahamas, to East Plana Cay, a limestone and coral island near the southeast tip of the Bahamas archipelago. East Plana Cay is roughly five miles long and a quartermile wide, a total area of roughly one and half square miles. It is remote; a thin strip of relatively barren, low-lying stone, with 20 plus miles across the open Atlantic to the nearest island.

 

The landscape is desolate, a thin layer of sandy soil covers rough weathered slabs of limestone, pocked with fissures, craters, crevasses, and small caves. 

 

Vegetation is salt-tolerant and drought-resistant, adapted for this semi-arid environment of nutrient-poor soil, high winds and salt spray: low growing shrubs, cactus, sparse stands of short palm and small buttonwood trees. The only fresh water is temporary, collected in craters and crevasses after rainfall.

 

The climate is subtropical and relatively consistent, year-round. Temps average in the upper 70°s F across the year with summer highs cresting in the low 90s°F and winter lows falling to the mid 60s°F.  Annual rainfall is fairly low, averaging about 35 inches per year, falling in short, infrequent bursts, quick storms as weather systems pass through to the wider ocean.

 

There are few other animal on the island. The only other inhabitants are bats, lizards, and seabirds who will visit though few nest there. Importantly there is no, nor has there even been regular human settlement on the island.

 

The Bahamian Hutia shares its island home with:

Seven-Year Apple, Southern Bahamas Anole, White-Tailed Tropicbird, Silver Thatch Palm, Wild Papaya, Audubon’s Shearwater, Sea Oats, East Plana Curlytail, Bridled Tern, Buttonwood, Hog-Cabbage Palm, Sooty Tern, Wild Dilly, Firebrush, Florida Privet, Railroad Vine, American Flamingo, Golden Creeper, Swordbush, Central Bahamas Geckolet, Seagrape, Great Blue Heron, Coastal Ragweed, Pigeon Plum, Bay Cedar, Osprey, and many, many more.

 

Threats

Once widespread all across the Bahamas, the fossil record shows significant decline in the Bahamian Hutia population upon the arrival of European colonizers in the 1500s and 1600s. Specifically, due to habitat destruction: land clearance for agriculture. And additionally the invasive introduction of European mammals, rats, mice, cats, and dogs impacted Hutia populations across the archipelago. Two subspecies, the Great Abaco Hutia and the Crooked Island Hutia, were driven to extinction roughly three to four hundred years ago.

 

In fact our Bahamian Hutia was believed to be extinct until the 1960s when the population on East Plana Cay was rediscovered. Their remote uninhabited location, crucial to their continued survival.

 

Today, the species is threatened by stochastic events, unpredictable occurrences, like a particularly severe hurricane which could devastate the remaining population in a single catastrophic occurrence. And by anthropogenic climate change. Human-induced climate change resulting from persistent overreliance on fossil fuel burning is resulting in sea level rise that is and will increasingly affect the Bahaman Cays. The low-lying islands are threatened by saltwater intrusion which would inundate the freshwater vegetation that the Bahamian Hutia feeds upon. And climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather, increasing the likelihood of stochastic events.

 

Conservation

Fortunately, the Bahamian Hutia has been legally protected by the Bahaman Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries since the 1960s. In the late 60s a translocation program introduced the species to two other remote island with similar habitats within the protected Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, on Warderick Wells Cay and Little Wax Cay. Though as of 2011, few, if any, of the Little Wax Cay population remain.

 

In 2018, a small captive breeding population was established at the Ardastra Gardens Zoo & Conservation Centre in Nassau, Bahamas to secure a stable, genetically diverse population for conservation research and public education.

 

Most recently, a 2025 research project is studying the feasibility of additional local breeding and reintroduction programs.

 

Nevertheless the Bahamian Hutia has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2024 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent counts, which are very rough, and some of which are 40-plus years old, estimate that less than 15000 Bahamian Hutia remain in the wild.

Citations 26:25

Information for today’s show about the Bahamas Hutia was compiled from:

 

Allen, J.A. 1891-08-31. Description of a new species of Capromys from the Plana Keys, Bahamas. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 3(23):329-336. – https://hdl.handle.net/2246/839

 

Campbell, D. G., Lowell, K. S., Lightbourn, M. E. 1991. The effect of introduced Hutias (Geocapromys ingrahami) on the woody vegetation of Little Wax Cay, Bahamas. Conservation Biology 5: 536-541 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.1991.tb00361.x

 

Cartwright, F.B., Davis, A., Kennerley, R. & Turvey, S.T. 2024. Geocapromys ingrahami. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T9002A224590046. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T9002A224590046.en

 

Clough, Garrett C. 1973. “A Most Peaceable Rodent.” Natural History 82 (6): 66–74. – http://hdl.handle.net/2246/6480

 

Clough, Garrett C. “The Bahaman Hutia: A Rodent Refound.” Oryx 10, no. 2 (1969): 106–8. – https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300007936

 

Clough, Garrett C. 1976. “Current Status of Two Endangered Caribbean Rodents.” Biological Conservation 10, no. 1 (July): 43–47. – https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(76)90023-9

 

Jordan, Kevin Clark. 1989. “An Ecology of the Bahamian Hutia : Geocapromys Ingrahami”. Doctoral Dissertation; University of Florida. – https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/207298

 

Knowles, Lindy, and Casuarina McKinney-Lambert. 2013. Southeastern Bahamas Coral Reef & Island Survey: Rapid Ecological Assessment Report. Nassau: Bahamas National Trust & BREEF. – https://www.agrra.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/SE-Bahamas-Coral-Reef-and-Island-Survey-Final-REA-Report-9-24-13.pdf

 

Kennerley, Ros. 2024. “Safeguarding the Future of Critically Endangered Bahaman Hutia Within the Bahaman Archipelago Through Evidenced Based Management.” Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. December 23, 2024. - https://www.speciesconservation.org/small-grant/bahamian-hutia/36130

 

LeFebvre MJ, deFrance SD, Kamenov GD, Keegan WF, Krigbaum J (2019) The zooarchaeology and isotopic ecology of the Bahamian hutia (Geocapromys ingrahami): Evidence for pre-Columbian anthropogenic management. PLoS ONE 14(9): e0220284. – https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220284

 

LeFebvre, Michelle, Geoffrey Duchemin, Susan deFrance, William Keegan, and Kristen Walczesky. 2018. “Bahamian Hutia (Geocapromys Ingrahami) in the Lucayan Realm: Pre-Columbian Exploitation and Translocation.” Environmental Archaeology 24, no. 2 (August): 171–87. – https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2018.1503809

 

Oswald, J.A., Allen, J.M., LeFebvre, M.J. et al. Ancient DNA and high-resolution chronometry reveal a long-term human role in the historical diversity and biogeography of the Bahamian hutia. Scientific Reports v 10, 1373 (2020). – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58224-y

 

Rebach, Judith A. Osborn, “Comparison of the Gas Exchange and Water Balance of the Nutria, Myocastorcoypus, and the Hutia, Geocapromys Ingrahami“ (1971). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 2617. University of Rhode Island. – https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/2617

 

Turvey, Samuel T., Rosalind J. Kennerley, Jose M. Nuñez-Miño, and Richard P. Young. 2017. “The Last Survivors: Current Status and Conservation of the Non-Volant Land Mammals of the Insular Caribbean.” Journal of Mammalogy 98, no. 4 (August): 918–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyw154

 

Wilson, Don E., Thomas E. Lacher Jr., and Russell A. Mittermeier. 2016. “Geocapromys Ingrahami.” In Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 6: Lagomorphs and Rodents I, 552–604. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. – https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6624107

 

For more information about Bahamian Hutia conservation, please see the Bahamas National Trust at https://bnt.bs/explore/exuma/exuma-cays-land-sea-park/

Music 28:32

Pledge 33:34

I honor the lifeforce of the Bahamian Hutia. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Bahamian Hutia I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.