Do you remember Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax’?

Then you know the line: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

It may only be a passage in a book until the moment you’re standing in a Costa Rican cloud forest, watching the mist roll over a disappearing canopy.

The subject here is an Emerald Toucanet. While its larger cousins get all the tourist attention, this bird does the heavy lifting in the highlands. They are the gardeners of the volcanic ranges, dispersing seeds that keep the forest floor regenerating. They are small, scrappy, and—in the right light—nearly neon.

I’ve rendered the background in monochrome to pull the bird out of its natural camouflage. In the wild, that green plumage is a survival mechanism that makes them invisible against the leaves. Here, stripped of its environment, the toucanet stands alone. It’s a visual nod to the reality of habitat loss and the illegal trade that threatens them.

If we lose the “unless,” we lose the toucanet too.