ML141234
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Subject 1: (Interview). Subtitle: George Schaller. Timecode In: 00:01:38. Timecode out: 00:38:06. Notes: George Schaller; Conservation biology, research and exploration. Subject 2: Red-throated Ant-Tanager (Habia fuscicauda). Timecode In: Unknown. Timecode out: Unknown. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. NPR/NGS GEOGRAPHIC CENTURY GEORGE SCHALLER LOG 8/17/99 interviewed by Alex Chadwick 1:08 AC - you started roaming out in Africa, is that right AC saying starting now AC - please say who you are and what you do 1:48 GS - I am George Schaller. I am a conservation biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, formally known as the NY Zoological Society. 2:02 AC - when you started working was there such a thing as a conservation biologist? 2:12 GS - yes there were, but it was not as focused as it is now bc obviously for many decades people have been doing research and being concerned about the environment. However, when you see the destruction of the earth¿s habitats and species nowadays I don¿t think any biologist can just study an animal and just leave it at that. I think you have a moral responsibility to help the animals and plants that you study endure. So, your focus becomes almost as much on conservation and sometimes more so then on doing the basic research..3;05 3:08 AC - would a scientific critic hearing what you have said say this is a scientists who¿s views may be colored more by his heart than with his head; that is if one feels a moral responsibility to a certain outcome, how does that effect your science? 3:28 GS - I don¿t think you can do good science w/out emotional involvement and you can not observe animals well, bc you only see them through your eyes anyway. There is no such thing as being wholly objective, bc the questions you ask are determined by you. Somebody else might ask another question and get different results. So in conservation - especially when you work for yrs and yrs in another culture, another country - you have to have the emotional commitment to carry you through. You can¿t just sit there is a disembodied way say you are doing science. 4:21 4:22 AC - how did you learn that lesson? When you were a boy what kind of lead you in the direction of your interest in the natural world? 4:34 GS - I think most naturalists started as being interested as children in that you like to be outdoors, you like to keep lizards in an aquarium, or you like to watch birds, and it is just fortunate that ones boyhood or girlhood interests can later now be translated into a way of making a living as an adult - and not just making a living but you feel that you are contributing to society, to the future, by helping species and the environment. 5:21 5;22 AC- where did you grow up? 5:24 GS - Well, I grew up in Germany and came to the United States as a teenager but I was very fortunate in that I went to the University of Alaska and that gave me several years of field work - of being able to be outdoors in remote, wild areas helping to study wildlife and this led to graduate school and projects and the first overseas project was in Africa. And I have continued ever since AC - how was it that a young boy from Germany picked the University of Alaska for his college education? 6;15 GS - well that was luck. My cousin had gone there, I made a trip to Alaska while I was still in High School and I thought hey - this is wonderful - endless space, very few people, a lot of wildlife, a lot of forest - it was a kind of place you can mentally and physically get lost on. AC - What year did you graduate? 6:42 GS - well, I graduated from HS in 1951.. AC - so that¿s when you started so Alaska must have been really really different then - it wasn¿t even a state at that time 6;55 GS - that¿s right. It was still a territory. There were only about 250,000 peo... (Notes truncated)
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- Cataloged
- 17 Sep 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 17 Sep 2009 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 17 Sep 2009 - Ben Brotman