ML137969
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Russell Mittermeier. Timecode In: 00:00:31. Timecode out: 00:28:29. Notes: George Schaller; Conservation. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Split track. Russell A. Mittermeier Interviewed by Donald Smith September 8, 1999 Russ Mittermeier (RM) President of Conservation International; specialties: primatology and herpetology. 1:47 RM: my field season is all year round.. . .conservation bureaucrat.. (talks about what he's working on right now and for future.. .New Guinea, other parts of Amazonia to see if for low investment, they can set aside areas as kind of trust fund... proactive preservation.. in process of finding new monkey species in Amazon.. it's remarkable in this day and age, however, they've found 7 new species in Brazil alone). Going to Brazil in 2 weeks and then to Vietnam, a hot spot . . . has the largest number of extinct species. . . ,it's habitat destruction and hunting pressure.. .in many places we're looking at empty forest syndrome where there's forest standing but nothing living in it. RM: I've known George Schaller (GS) for 25 years and briefly worked for him at the Bronx Zoo. He's really art amazing character, he's the premier field biologist of this century. RM: I don't think anyone can out-Schaller Schaller. He's picked most interesting vertebrate animals, some of the most difficult to study and he did whatever necessary to study them. George was the first one to go into Virunga volcanoes and show that you could watch these animals and not get torn to shreds by them.... (talks about animals GS has studied, panda, jaguar.. .)...he's got enormous persistence, he's incredibly strong and so disciplined.. RM: He's highly talented. The only person who can compare to him, in my opinion, is Jane Goodall. . . George has studied such an incredible range of species on three different continents. I think when we look back he'll be looked upon as the preeminent field biologist. You've got to be in pretty good shape... I wouldn't want to have to compete with him in the field. He spends so much time in the field and works with large animals that are extremely elusive.... you could spend months without even getting the first sighting of the animal you're looking for... you really have to have tremendous focus and ability to look at every detail of what animal is doing... It's dangerous in that some of the species you're working on are tigers... but you can't go in large groups, you have to go by yourself, but George understands that, he's a loner and goes out and does what he has to do... I've heard that he's so focused that he can be hard to get along with in the field.. but I think you need that to be successful in studying these species. You have to be able to depend on yourself, very independent, go without social contact for significant periods of time; it takes a unique kind of personality. George is symbolic of the kind of personality to be a very successful biologist... He's really an amazing character. In many ways he's the premier field biologist of this century. CAN'T OUT-SCHALLER SCHALLER What George has done quite simply picked some of the most interesting, most charismatic mega-vertebrates, large mammals, and some of the most difficult to study - many of them people thought were un-studiable in the wild. He went out and he.. .studied them. He did what was necessary to go out and find them in the wild and get the kind of information needed to understand them better and to ensure their conservation. Dian Fossey gets a lot of credit for having done the mountain gorilla work, and she of course spent a tot of time with the mountain gorilla. But George was the first one who went up into the Virunga volcanoes on the Zaire, on the Congo of Rwanda-Uganda border, and showed that you could actually watch these animals and not be torn asunder by them. A... (Notes truncated)
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- 23 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
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- 23 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman
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- 23 Oct 2008 - Ben Brotman