Читать книгу Animal SOS Animal - Octavio Pineda - Страница 11

With slight shape variations,

I had managed to survive

for millions of years.

Animal artichoke,

I’m the last living genus of the Manidae.

I have always felt close

to armadillos, sloths and anteaters,

whose ancestors date back to armored glyptodonts

or the giant sloth, also called the Megatherium,

but taxonomists say

I followed a different evolutionary branch.

To defend myself, I roll into a ball, like a woodlouse:

in wise Nature, everything is interconnected,

no matter if you are a mammal or an insect.

Whatever my origin, my future is quite precarious,

and like for many other species

my ruin has been

the ignorance or superstition of mankind,

which has given my scales as frivolous uses

as making cowboy boots

or ascribing medicinal benefits to them,

when they actually are made of simple keratin

just like human nails or hair.