nature
Young naturalists learning in the only really suitable place - outdoos in the midst of nature
The Study of Wildlife
By Mik
e Geo r ge
Mike George is our regular contributor on wildlife and the countryside in France. He is a geologist and naturalist, living in the Jurassic area of the Charente
IT IS ALL AROUND US. IT DOESN’T INTERACT WITH US MUCH, EXCEPT WHEN IT GETS INTO THE BEDROOM OR EATS THE FLOWERS. WHY BOTHER?
W
ell, that was very much mankind’s attitude for centuries, especially working man, who was busy staying alive and trying to keep his family housed and fed. Wildlife was just part of the world he lived in, to be avoided if hurtful, squashed if annoying, or otherwise ignored. Many people still regard it in this way. The rich, of course, had the leisure to look around them and servants to do the dirtywork, but there were far more interesting pursuits than wildlife studies, such as the Grand Tour, gambling, and milkmaids. However, as time went by a few rich intelligent men – and others who wished to cater to them – found that intellectual pursuits yielded more satisfaction than
roistering. There was wildlife all around. Why not start looking at it and trying to make sense of it?
The trouble was that the basic studymatter was so diverse and scattered, with no organised way of referring to it or of classifying it. A butterfly, for example, This sort of interest seems to have begun would be given a “trivial” sometime in the late 16th name by those who saw it century. The new and wanted to discuss it, There were far more availability of printed but there was no interesting pursuits than books may have helped. guarantee that the same wildlife studies, such as Although books were still butterfly would be expensive, they were now the Grand Tour, gambling, referred to by the same and milkmaids available in editions of name even in the next volumes, not as copiedvillage. Eventually a sort out manuscripts. Before the advent of of agreed system developed, whereby a printing, only the great libraries and a few butterfly of a general brown colour kings could afford books. Now small, overlaid by a darker-brown network scruffy handbooks and teaching manuals pattern would be called a “Fritillary” after the shy snake’s-head flower with a similar began to appear.
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