Fleischner 2005

This article was a nice change from the traditional rigid and emotionless articles that we are usually immersed in. Written in poetic prose, Fleischner begins by recounting a life changing experience that he had in Alaska. He was hired by the National Marine Fisheries Services to find out the basic natural history of bowhead whales.

Natural history seems so basic and simple, yet it is fundamental if we want to learn anything about life on earth. Natural history is studying life at the level of the individual and how it interacts with its’ environment. It asks who, what, where, when, and how?

Although natural history has been around since civilization, it has gone in and out of fashion. As science advances, studies have become increasingly experimental and theoretical. Many people perceive ecology as mostly descriptive and an archaic form of science. These people are forgetting that theories mean nothing if they are not based on sound natural history.

Breakthroughs in our understanding of biology have been made by individuals who spent painstaking hours just observing. Darwin and Wallace both completely engrossed themselves in their systems before they had their revelations. Barbara McClintock discovered transposable elements by staring at corn squashes endlessly. She said that she felt like she was physically in there with the transposable elements.

For conservation biologists, knowing the natural history of at risk organisms is essential to making management decisions. You need to know where and how many individuals there are. This year is a census year in our country. The census is a kind of natural history survey of people. Policy makers need to know how the population is distributed in order to find what communities are most in need.

The best source of reliable natural history information is indigenous people. Their knowledge is local and reliable because they are one with their surroundings. Their survival depends on it. Their level of being in tuned with their surroundings is something most people never ascertain.

There have been moments in the field when I felt like I was completely in touch with my surroundings. I felt so small and insignificant. Those were some of the most primal and euphoric moments in my life so far. We need to return to natural history. We need to return to loving the earth.