The questions on which animals to protect on Cel were difficult, the island had very little habitat space and most of it would need to be shared. In the question between African rhinos and pygmy rhinos the pigmy won because they took up less space, same with the hippos. Asian elephants won because of their docility.
For most it was a question of food source. Hummingbirds were small but required a lot of food daily. For many it was the ability to survive when deprived of migration routes like Canadian Geese.
Many were chosen because of their ability to adapt or the low numbers required to maintain a reproducing population although none with lifespans longer than ten years would be reproducing until the planet had become stabilized. For many creatures it became a question of would it consider a human child as prey, none of those were saved.
Compatibility became an important issue as the committee doing the choosing progressed. Would gibbons and bonobos coexist? Would Orangs and spider monkeys? Would macaques and lemurs? Would marmosets and squirrels?
Among the primates there where many hard choices, mountain gorilla or lowland gorilla? As is turned out they were the same species so young specimens of each were placed in three mixed family groups of four.
Bonobos or chimps? Bonobos were chosen because they have the more amenable nature and seemed to be the more intelligent.
A ranger named Lin was a primatologist and the committee listened to her and asked for her vote first on each question. They had done that with each species of primates chosen. Lin had made the hard decisions and all had voted with her. All members of the committee could see her sadness when any primate was stricken off the list.
The voting was done and the selected creatures placed in their environment when suddenly a new species of primate was discovered that needed saving, Sasquatch.
A ranger in Yosemite National Park had been recruited by the Peer at the suggestion of a couple from Felicity.
Her name was Megan and when she learned the nature of her new job had called for the committee to meet. She invited a friend named Teresa and between them announced that Sasquatch were not a myth.
"We have some photos to show you. These are friends of ours, there are around ninety in Yosemite. I know people that know of other populations which suggests the Sasquatch numbers throughout North America may add up to at least two thousand but perhaps as many as ten times that number.
I know the ones in Yosemite and Teresa knows the ones in the Canadian Rockies north of Jasper. They understand English and some can speak it. I know one young girl that can play the flute.
We need to save them."
To their credit the rangers and the two Lords present believed them and wondered if they thought they could get her friends to walk into a space ship.
Both replied, "Yes."
Five weeks later a ship set down quietly in a glen in Yosemite on a late afternoon. The ship had slowly slipped through the air just above the tree canopy in the Sasquatch territory to make sure all saw it. It was softly playing a Vivaldi flute concerto as its door opened.
Megan and Teresa came out and sat on the grass. A family of beings came to them and the women stood, hugged the air then hugged the beings.
It was an extended family which included and adult male who was the rangers lover, his mother and two sisters. Shortly after the greeting two more family groups arrived, one a mother with two daughters and a young son and another older male, his female, their daughter and granddaughter.
