Came across this enchanting Alfred Russel Wallace quote while watching Attenborough in Paradise:
I thought of the long ages of the past, during which the successive generations of [the King Bird-of-Paradise] had run their course — year by year being born, and living and dying amid these dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness; to all appearance such a wanton waste of beauty. …It seems sad that on the one hand such exquisite creatures should live out their lives and exhibit their charms only in these wild inhospitable regions. This consideration must surely tell us that all living things were not made for man. Many of them have no relation to him. Their happiness and enjoyments, their loves and hates, their struggles for existence, their vigorous life and early death, would seem to be immediately related to their own well-being and perpetuation alone.
Alfred Russel Wallace
Birds of Paradise:
More video: David Attenborough on the Twelve wired bird of paradise
Flame Bowerbird:
More video: David Attenborough on the Australian Bower Bird