Naturalists

The naturalists began to focus their attention on the diversity of species.

Amateur naturalists begin their bee hunts by noting the time of day and location they are photographing.

Well you know, it isn’t a very good profession for making money. Not at all, it isn’t. Most of the good naturalists don’t make any money whatever. All they do is spend money, buying butterfly-nets and cases for birds’ eggs and things. It is only now, after I have been a naturalist for many years, that I am beginning to make a little money from the books I write.

For decades, many naturalists have called for re-classification of the African forest elephant. It is smaller than its free-ranging savannah counterpart. Its tusks are longer, thinner, and straighter, with a suggestion of pink to them. Its skull shape is also different. But appearance alone was insufficient to prove they were a different species, as University of Washington conservation biologist Samuel Wasser points out.

Vinson, who watched the last Purple Martin fledgling leave its nest this week, says naturalists like herself have an important role to play.