'The single biggest threat to our planet is the destruction of habitat and along the way loss of precious wildlife. We need to reach a balance where people, habitat, and wild life can co-exist – if we don't, everyone loses ... one day.' – Steve Irwin

1960
Congo Rainforest

We had hidden ourselves among the forest trees as if we were predators and not the prey, waiting for the inevitable after the footsteps pass. My troop and I hid in our tree house dwellings as humans wearing blinding vests and yellow hats passed by loudly. Yelling instructions to each other that I couldn't quite hear sitting in my mothers' fur. The humans pulled out their compact pain cans and marked my tree then moved onto other trees repeating the marks, until they were out of site.

"We must leave now" leader had said. We all followed as he disappeared into the forest's undergrowth. I clung to my mothers back, as she had groveled along the dirt remembering what had happened the last time the humans had painted the trees. They were torn down. And she lost a home.

It angered me that those tall creatures could take all that we had. They had destroyed our homes one after another, only after they tried to get rid of our troop and all the other animals around. But the troop as always kept moving forward, without a single glance back.

"Why must we leave our homes? Why can't we just fight back?" I had asked her one day as we moved to a new home. She had stared straight ahead when she growled out the reply. "In the eyes of those creatures we are just toy's, they watch as run around the declining forest and laugh as we move. We are the prey not the predator". She continued her pace and left me pondering as I clung to her fur tighter.

I watched as we passed by the taller trees, ones we should be climbing. But no one dared to try. The path we had made took days to travel upon. And within weeks the humans would find our new homes, paint them, then we would leave. The birds followed.

Our leader had led us deeper and deeper into the forest with no end in sight. Hiding in undergrowth we continued, endlessly for days, picking our food along the way. We paused in our tracks as the voices of humans slowly passed us.

"Professor Nigel, are you sure they are here? There are no tracks to indicate they have passed through here?"

"My dear Jane I am sure. Those horrible builders who had passed through here before were kind enough to point me in the direction of which the chimp's tree's lay. Though I do believe that they may have vacated at the sight of those horrible, horrible men". The man and woman continued their arguing as they passed by us. I had held my breath and burrowed myself into mothers' fur as she continued her stillness.

When we finally couldn't hear their voices anymore, we moved to the next dwelling.

Our next home didn't last long either. We had found an area untouched by the pain cans. One where the orange vested creatures had yet to make their own and place their own dwellings there. The birds still flew here.

My mother had made the nest, as I sat on her back and watched. It was fascinating to me how my mother would make our nest's, intertwining twigs and sticks, before creating a layer of grass and leaves to keep us warm through the night.

Leader had placed himself on watch as we finished our nests, he stared through the thinning forest and waited for any sign of danger. He found none, there were no obscure sounds that I could've heard, no movement from any of their creatures. Not a danger in sight.

"Mother, are we safe?"
"Not yet".

The danger came that night. We were awoken by the troops guard. He screamed of giant creature rolling forward, eating everything in its path, leaving a path of destruction in its wake.

The troop became frantic as large lights were appearing behind the trees. Our leader was quick in his actions as he screamed for us to follow him, that we could never hope to defeat it. Once again we ran for our lives through the forest. I clung tightly to my mother as she raced away from the monster.

I only looked back once, only to see our dwelling being destroyed by the giant monster, being manned by the orange vested human.

My mother had raced faster along with the troop, until we had reached somewhere far, far away from the creatures wrath. I was still too let go of mothers fur. The images of destruction imprinted within my mind. My mother looked down as her words appeared within my mind.

Only when leader had settled down, did we realise that we had lost someone from our troop.

Many months had passed, and the orange vested men had not found us. We were safe for that sparse period of time. Leader had decided we need not be wary anymore, but my mother knew better, leaning down to me to whisper "we are prey not predators" before we fell asleep in our new nests.

The other humans did return. They sat and watched from a distance, as if they were waiting for us to greet them. The pair argued over our troop as the birds watched them from a distance.

Leader had left them be, they meant no harm he had said, so we left them be as well, ignoring them as our mothers and fathers tried to feed our wanting stomachs within the new surroundings.

Days later, one of the other chimps had approached them, with a naive tone claiming, "if they haven't painted our tree's by now, they're safe". I watched as the man and woman gushed over him. They looked at him in excitement and wonder, almost as if they weren't expecting such a surprise.

Soon the whole troop had become accustomed to their random appearances, welcoming them as part of the community. But mother just watched on and waited for their faults to show.

Miss jane was the first to name me. When I first crawled to her, she picked me up and held be like my mother once had, as if I was a babe. I had loved this feeling. It made me feel loved in the stark contrast of what my mother provided me, but I was still weary as mothers words had stuck within my mind.

"your name shall be Tarzan" Miss Jane had whispered down to me as she cradled me in her arms. Professor Nigel had laughed at the name, talking about something called a movie. As days went on, I grew to care for the two more than those in the troop, eventually regarding miss jane as my own mother rather than the one that was within our community.

She watched as I played with the other children, walked with us when we searched for food, helped groom us, even introduced us to human stories and things called books. We learned about these humans and started to care for them as they did us.

My mother watched from the side and made no effort to engage with Miss jane or Mr. Nigel. She just watched from the distance as we interacted with the humans, drifting further and further away from her.

Soon our whole community had forgotten the orange vested humans that had haunted us for months on end. We had forgotten too soon.

One day miss jane had brought a stranger to our community. He was different from the other man, Mr. Nigel. Miss jane said he was her mate, telling him our names every as she introduced him to us. He stood tall and unafraid as leader began to growl at him when he tried to approach him. He only muttered "savage beast" before he turned back to jane.

"This little one here I've named Tarzan. You know after those books you had bought me" Miss jane had said to him, as if he were to remember doing such a thing.

"What an odd name for a chimp jane, you should do well to remember that Tarzan was human. - "the man had replied. I had watched as the man continued to look down upon my Miss Jane in a demeaning stance.

"-He was never a chimp. And he will never become so ever again. We can't have you fantasizing anymore than you already do about some strong man coming to save your forest." In that moment all I could see was those men in orange vest, standing to take our home. I ran to Miss Janes shoulders and clung to her hair.

"This has been and will always be my home. I dare you to try to take me away from this, I will protect them till my very last breath. And you won't stop me" Miss janes defiance had turned the man red, he turned in anger muttering words like, we'll see about that. Miss Jane only stood and stared with the Mr. Nigel as the man left into the forest.

"you shouldn't have done that." Mr. Nigel had said to her, a worried gaze aimed towards the dense forest, almost fearing his return. Miss Jane only muttered in defeat, as she turned off while clutching me in her arms. She held on tight and full of worry, thinking that she may not see me again.

She was right.

The next day had arrived and the birds had left. My mother had slept alone that night, while I slept with miss jane. Mother stared down at me from the tree's as he weary words filled my mind. She looked down at me and growled "We are prey, not predators" before she turned away from me, as if I wasn't her son.

I continued to sleep with miss jane, she couldn't hurt me. Not like those men had tried too. I was safe with miss jane.

Days later Miss Jane and Mr. Nigel were gone. The man had come and taken them away in the middle of the night, claiming that they were becoming insane as they spent more time within our home.

Miss jane had left screaming my name and pleading to the men that carried, asking them to leave the forest alone, that it was inhumane to treat as such. I watched in terror with no one to cling to, feeling my mother gaze upon my back as we listened to the screams.Mr. Nigel followed the men wordlessly and watched in sorrow as he was dragged backwards.

Our leader screamed in anger as he rushed forward and managed to hit one of the men holding Miss Jane. His anger blinded him as he continued to tear at the men, leaving blood in his wake, protecting the troop.

Soon others followed and were attempting to pull others away from Miss Jane and Mr. Nigel. I, angry too tried to join within the growls of our community. I was to be Tarzan, Miss Jane's protector, but mother had pulled me back. For the first time in what seemed to be weeks. She started running to the forest, away from the men with me in her grasp.

"Stupid Apes" where the last words I heard from the men before they started to fire. My mothers' words rang true as our leader fell. We are prey, Not predators. And we were next.