Guide to the study of animal ecologyAdams, Charles C. (Charles Christopher)
Science
Guide to the study of animal ecology
Adams, Charles C. (Charles Christopher)
Animal ecology
At the present time it is very difficult to secure trained men to do
ecological surveying. Even a superficial examination of this paper
should show that familiarity with ecologic methods and results is not
one to be acquired offhand, but a knowledge which requires considerable
special training; not only as much as is usually required for other
kinds of zoölogical work, but generally more, because of its synthetic
relational tendency which requires a broad knowledge as well as some
special knowledge in several lines of biology and the allied sciences.
Conventionally considered, a properly equipped physiologist must have
a working knowledge of certain phases of modern physics and chemistry
in addition to his grounding in biology. A properly trained anatomist
should have a knowledge of physiological and developmental processes,
or his anatomy is purely descriptive and static. A student of general
zoölogy should be grounded not only in physiological and developmental
processes, but also in the relations of the organisms to their
complete environment. The ecologist requires also the grounding in
physiological, developmental, and ecological processes of adjustment,
but as well he must understand the processes by which the vegetation
and the physical environment have been and are being developed and
their method of mutual interrelations and adjustment. It is difficult
for some students to develop the ecological phases in the field. There
are many disadvantages to be overcome. The difficulties are similar,
in some respects, to those of the ethnologist who is sent on some
museum expedition. The wealthy donor of the funds may wish to see a
room filled with specimens on the return of the ethnologist, so that
materials which have bulk and make a showing take precedence over
detailed studies of the habits, traditions, languages, and descriptions
of the people, because such studies require appreciation rather than
inspection for evaluation. The zoölogical student may meet with just
the same kind of difficulty. His institutional authorities often judge
values by the cubic foot and pound, rather than by the quality of
relations discovered. The student himself who has had an extensive
collecting experience, in which quantity and variety have been the
ideal, finds it difficult to return from a day’s work with only a few
pages of notes on the responses of the animals, and with perhaps only a
few specimens.
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