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GEORGE SCHALLER'S GIFT OF GRACE

Every naturalist has his or her own vision in deciding what to study and where to do so. Given the seemingly random species that have been the focus of my work, among them caiman, capybara, chiru, and cheetah, I would like to comment about my personal quest.

Everyone has two futures, someone has said, a future of desire and a future of fate. The outdoors and wild animals captivated me as a child. Now I still seek big skies, the tracks of tigers, and herds of blue sheep in the Himalaya. My first opportunity for field work was in 1952 in northern Alaska, and four years later the New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society) sponsored an expedition, of which I was a member, to Alaska's Brooks Range, to an area that became the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Since then the Wildlife Conservation Society, and recently also Panthera, have provided me with the freedom to do the work I love.

I began field work at a time when the natural history of few species had been studied. Sometimes I was asked to do a project and at other times I selected an animal and a place that intrigued me. For example, I was offered the chance to study the Serengeti lions to answer a scientific question, "What effect does predation have on prey populations?" I went to the Tibetan Plateau in China not only to observe Tibetan antelope, Tibetan wild ass, wild yak, and other members of this unique large mammal community, but also because I was drawn to the spacious desolation of these uplands. It affords me deep pleasure to observe the rich and complex life of another being and to write its biography. After all, the mountain gorilla, tiger, and giant panda are among the most wonderful expression of life on Earth.

My projects are thus an amalgam of science, beauty, and dream. A species may be iconic and endangered, but the word that describes it best is charismatic as defined in the original Greek -- a gift of grace.' I have inadvertently followed the dictum of Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

The 1956 expedition to Alaska was led by Olaus Murie, president of The Wilderness Society. It was a marvelous summer of natural history, but Olaus also stressed the precious intangible values,' of our responsibility to treat it with respect and compassion. Conservation is a moral issue, one of beauty, ethics, and spiritual values without which it cannot sustain itself. I have tried to live up to this ideal by trying to help protect what I study. However, even a protected area may not be safe, as the Arctic Refuge has shown so well. Oil companies and politicians have for decades tried to invade and despoil the refuge, the country's last great wilderness, to drill for oil. This teaches an important lesson: if we treasure something in nature we can never turn our backs -- or it may be destroyed. There are certain places that must be preserved without greed or compromise.

The Virunga Volcanoes that straddle the border of Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda are another such place. The mountain gorillas there live on a forest island surrounded by a sea of humanity in need of land, fuelwood, and other resources. My wife Kay and I had to terminate our gorilla study during the turmoil of Congo independence in 1960. The gorillas since have had a precarious existence in the midst of unrest and war, yet they have survived. During my intermittent visits back to Rwanda the conservation efforts have impressed me greatly. There is an excellent tourist program with guides who know all gorillas individually and monitor them, dedicated park guards, and community development that uses income from tourism to provide health services and schools. Above all, Rwanda is proud of its gorillas. It is a model program that all countries, including rich ones like the United States, must emulate.

Albert Einstein said, "I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it." I feel the same way about gorillas.

Over the years my emphasis has changed from wildlife observation to conservation. Few once thought of wilderness as an irreplaceable and exhaustible resource. I began field work with two main aims, to study species and to help establish protected areas. Both remain essential. I encourage governments to designate new protected areas in, for example, Afghanistan, China, and Brazil. However, in the past 50 years the human population has tripled. Most countries now lack space to establish large protected areas. Besides, protected areas exclude people, often to great local resentment. I have had to change my former mindset about how best to achieve conservation, realizing that today one must link nature and human need.

Most protected areas are far too small to sustain all species on a long-term basis. This is especially true now with the accelerating impact of climate change, a real weapon of mass destruction, which will rapidly affect ecosystems and force species to adapt, migrate, or become extinct. Instead of discrete protected areas we should manage on a landscape scale, creating a mix of conservation and regulated development ranging from strictly protected areas to those designated for human use. I have been involved in two such projects during the past two decades, each covering an area of over 100,000 square miles: one in the eastern steppes of Mongolia with its vast herds of Mongolian gazelles, and the other in China on the Tibetan Plateau. Such projects have taught me that nothing remains static as conditions change with development and the economic status of local people. Conservation is not a goal but a never-ending process.

It has been claimed that there is no intelligent life on Earth. I hope that humankind will learn to live wisely, adapting to an era of limits, and ensure ourselves ecological security. "Conserve or perish" is the Hindu message of the Bhagavad Gita. I try in a small way to help retain the natural splendor of our past.

George B. Schaller
Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera

George Schaller received a 2009 Distinguished Service Award from SCB for extraordinary contributions to the conservation of many of the world's most iconic and endangered species through leadership in field research and its application to conservation.

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