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Maasailand ecology: Pastoral development and wildlife conservation in Ngorogoro, Tanzania
Biological Conservation 1992, 62, 139-141
Book reviews Biology of the Koala. Edited by A. K. Lee, K. A. Handasyde & G. D. Sanson. Surrey Beatty, Chipping Norton, NSW, 1991. ISBN 0 949324 34 5. Price: AS 78.00.
cultural plants, and collecting for the seed bank. The book made enjoyable and informative casual reading. M. T. Tanton
Many of the 31 papers included here were presented at the Third Symposium on the Biology of the Koala, held at the University of Melbourne in 1988. The contributions provide a valuable collection of the latest knowledge, including much new information, on the biology, conservation and care of the koala. Topics are diverse, and include distribution and home range, diet preferences and digestion, reproductive hormones and reproduction, diseases and their management, and experimental translocation to new habitats. The book is produced to the usual high standard of Surrey Beatty, and only in a few places have the editors missed typographical and grammatical errors. The price of this excellent and comprehensive work puts it within reach of all interested in the koala, and I strongly recommend its purchase. M. T. Tanton
Maasailand Ecology: Pastoral Development and Wildlife Conservation in Ngorogoro, Tanzania. By K. M. Homewood & W. A. Rogers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991. 298 pp. ISBN 0 521 40002 3 (hbk). Price: £45.00, US$89.95.
As the human population of Africa continues to rise, at almost unsustainable levels, the consequent conflict between people and wildlife raises problems that require urgent and often drastic solutions. The pastoral Maasai people in the vicinity of the Ngorogoro Crater of Tanzania provide an object lesson of how we may attempt to tackle this conflict of needs. The authors of this stimulating volume undertook their study, funded by IUCN, with a view to gathering the information for the production of an Ngorogoro Conservation Area Management Plan, which would take into account the needs of both the people and the wildlife. These urgent conservation questions are frequently tackled by researchers who either stand in the human or the wildlife protection camps--which is perhaps the reason why conservation bodies throughout the world have only just come to recognise that land-use planning in Africa, and elsewhere, must attempt to integrate the needs of both humans and the wildlife. Both the authors came to the project with extensive knowledge of both the anthropology and wildlife, in Tanzania. They conclude that 'Maasai add to the values of Ngorogoro, rather than detract from them', a view yet to be fully accepted by the planners in Tanzania. In addition to dealing with the ecology of the Maasai, they provide us with an excellent background to the physical features of Ngorogoro, the production and dynamics of range resources, the ecology of the wildlife, and livestock/wildlife interactions and development. Anyone, from students to professionals, working in the field of development, ecology or wildlife will find this book of
Plant Hunting for Kew. Edited by F. N. Hepper. HMSO, London, 1989. 222 pp. ISBN 0 11 250038 2 (pbk). Price: £17.95.
A well-produced and well-illustrated book with first-hand accounts of plant collecting around the world by botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The two chapters of part I cover collectors and expeditions from the period 1772 to 1939. One admires the tenacity and determination of the early collectors in their efforts to obtain specimens, and transport them safely back to Kew. In part II some of the eight chapters about 13 recent expeditions show that even today the task of preparing and transporting specimens can have its problems! The eight chapters in part III deal with recent specialist expeditions, such as the quest for useful legumes, the search for new hortiBiological Conservation 62 (1992) ~ 1992 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd. 139
140
Book reviews
great value in recognising the need to take a more holistic view of development and wildlife conservation. Malcolm Coe
Pioneer Ecologist. The Life and Work of Victor Ernest Shelford 1877-1968. By Robert A. Croker. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1991. 222 pp. ISBN 0 87474 315 X. Price: US$27-50.
Presumably all ecologists have heard of the pioneer American animal ecologist Victor Shelford. However, this well-written book contains a great deal of information about him that will be news to most. The book was of great interest to me for two other reasons: it contributes to our understanding of the way in which particular experiences shape the conceptual development of an ecological scholar; it also has important implications for the design of ecological training programs. It is astonishing to discover the way this one person was woven into the history of American ecology. Two key plant ecologists, Henry Cowles and Frederic Clements, were important influences on his worldview, so Shelford was a synthetic community ecologist, not an animal ecologist. The first of Shelford's 25 doctoral recipients (1912) was Warder Clyde Allee, who founded the University of Chicago ecology tradition, which subsequently included Alfred Emerson and Thomas Park. Samuel Charles Kendeigh, who obtained his doctorate from Shelford (1930), was a mainstay of the Illinois ecology tradition for a long time; Eugene Odum did field trips with Shelford and took his doctorate from Kendeigh, then has for a long time been a mainstay of the University Of Georgia ecology program. The last of Shelford's 51 Master's thesis students was Stanley Auerbach (1947), a central figure at Oak Ridge for many years. In short, a truly remarkable proportion of the influ-ential ecologists, ecological publications and ecological training programs are intellectual children, grandchildren or greatgrandchildren of Shelford, his publications or his courses. Four features of Shelford are documented vividly in this book. He had overwhelming energy, stamina and industriousness (he was still 'erect and vigorous' at 80). He was an incredible planner and organizer. A sample field trip included 'quantitative collections and observations at 19 different
sites distributed over an area of approximately 50 square miles'. A key stimulus to the development of his and his students' worldviews was comparative analysis of large numbers of entire communities in the field. Perhaps the most important shaper of Shelford's conceptual models was the successional series of communities different distances inshore from the water line of the southern Lake Michigan dunes. His approach linked work on two hierarchical levels of causal associations: autecology and holistic community ecology. Finally, he had a lifelong commitment to the notion that ecologists should be politically active in the environmental movement. Over a long period, he pushed the Ecological Society of America and the National Research Council to be environmentally active and participated in the founding of The Nature Conservancy. In short, Victor Shelford did so much that it takes one's breath away: a simply astonishing life. This book has some important, and disturbing, implications for ecologists. There is a clearly documented causal connection between interdisciplinary training and reading and a realistic ecological worldview. Unfortunately, universities are moving to ever more narrow intradisciplinary specialization, a force we should all resist. Even more importantly, a great deal of field experience in the very diverse biomes appears to be a prerequisite for a comparative style of reasoning, and the formulation of a mature ecological worldview. Further, field courses should link holistic analysis of the community and ecosystem with the associated autecological phenomena. Ubiquitous budgetary crises and an explosion in the number of students taking ecology (perhaps a 40-fold increase in 40 years) are systematically eliminating this type of field training everywhere. Ecologists must try to reverse this trend also. Kenneth E. F. Watt
British Red Data Books, 3. Invertebrates Other Than Insects. Edited by J. B. Bratton. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, 1991. 253 pp. ISBN 1 873701 00 4. Price £8.00, post free from JNCC, Monkstone House, City Road, Peterborough, PE1 1JY.
This publication is an important addition to the British Red Data Books and a companion volume to the earlier one on insects. The status and interest
Book reviews Biology of the Koala. Edited by A. K. Lee, K. A. Handasyde & G. D. Sanson. Surrey Beatty, Chipping Norton, NSW, 1991. ISBN 0 949324 34 5. Price: AS 78.00.
cultural plants, and collecting for the seed bank. The book made enjoyable and informative casual reading. M. T. Tanton
Many of the 31 papers included here were presented at the Third Symposium on the Biology of the Koala, held at the University of Melbourne in 1988. The contributions provide a valuable collection of the latest knowledge, including much new information, on the biology, conservation and care of the koala. Topics are diverse, and include distribution and home range, diet preferences and digestion, reproductive hormones and reproduction, diseases and their management, and experimental translocation to new habitats. The book is produced to the usual high standard of Surrey Beatty, and only in a few places have the editors missed typographical and grammatical errors. The price of this excellent and comprehensive work puts it within reach of all interested in the koala, and I strongly recommend its purchase. M. T. Tanton
Maasailand Ecology: Pastoral Development and Wildlife Conservation in Ngorogoro, Tanzania. By K. M. Homewood & W. A. Rogers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991. 298 pp. ISBN 0 521 40002 3 (hbk). Price: £45.00, US$89.95.
As the human population of Africa continues to rise, at almost unsustainable levels, the consequent conflict between people and wildlife raises problems that require urgent and often drastic solutions. The pastoral Maasai people in the vicinity of the Ngorogoro Crater of Tanzania provide an object lesson of how we may attempt to tackle this conflict of needs. The authors of this stimulating volume undertook their study, funded by IUCN, with a view to gathering the information for the production of an Ngorogoro Conservation Area Management Plan, which would take into account the needs of both the people and the wildlife. These urgent conservation questions are frequently tackled by researchers who either stand in the human or the wildlife protection camps--which is perhaps the reason why conservation bodies throughout the world have only just come to recognise that land-use planning in Africa, and elsewhere, must attempt to integrate the needs of both humans and the wildlife. Both the authors came to the project with extensive knowledge of both the anthropology and wildlife, in Tanzania. They conclude that 'Maasai add to the values of Ngorogoro, rather than detract from them', a view yet to be fully accepted by the planners in Tanzania. In addition to dealing with the ecology of the Maasai, they provide us with an excellent background to the physical features of Ngorogoro, the production and dynamics of range resources, the ecology of the wildlife, and livestock/wildlife interactions and development. Anyone, from students to professionals, working in the field of development, ecology or wildlife will find this book of
Plant Hunting for Kew. Edited by F. N. Hepper. HMSO, London, 1989. 222 pp. ISBN 0 11 250038 2 (pbk). Price: £17.95.
A well-produced and well-illustrated book with first-hand accounts of plant collecting around the world by botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The two chapters of part I cover collectors and expeditions from the period 1772 to 1939. One admires the tenacity and determination of the early collectors in their efforts to obtain specimens, and transport them safely back to Kew. In part II some of the eight chapters about 13 recent expeditions show that even today the task of preparing and transporting specimens can have its problems! The eight chapters in part III deal with recent specialist expeditions, such as the quest for useful legumes, the search for new hortiBiological Conservation 62 (1992) ~ 1992 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd. 139
140
Book reviews
great value in recognising the need to take a more holistic view of development and wildlife conservation. Malcolm Coe
Pioneer Ecologist. The Life and Work of Victor Ernest Shelford 1877-1968. By Robert A. Croker. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1991. 222 pp. ISBN 0 87474 315 X. Price: US$27-50.
Presumably all ecologists have heard of the pioneer American animal ecologist Victor Shelford. However, this well-written book contains a great deal of information about him that will be news to most. The book was of great interest to me for two other reasons: it contributes to our understanding of the way in which particular experiences shape the conceptual development of an ecological scholar; it also has important implications for the design of ecological training programs. It is astonishing to discover the way this one person was woven into the history of American ecology. Two key plant ecologists, Henry Cowles and Frederic Clements, were important influences on his worldview, so Shelford was a synthetic community ecologist, not an animal ecologist. The first of Shelford's 25 doctoral recipients (1912) was Warder Clyde Allee, who founded the University of Chicago ecology tradition, which subsequently included Alfred Emerson and Thomas Park. Samuel Charles Kendeigh, who obtained his doctorate from Shelford (1930), was a mainstay of the Illinois ecology tradition for a long time; Eugene Odum did field trips with Shelford and took his doctorate from Kendeigh, then has for a long time been a mainstay of the University Of Georgia ecology program. The last of Shelford's 51 Master's thesis students was Stanley Auerbach (1947), a central figure at Oak Ridge for many years. In short, a truly remarkable proportion of the influ-ential ecologists, ecological publications and ecological training programs are intellectual children, grandchildren or greatgrandchildren of Shelford, his publications or his courses. Four features of Shelford are documented vividly in this book. He had overwhelming energy, stamina and industriousness (he was still 'erect and vigorous' at 80). He was an incredible planner and organizer. A sample field trip included 'quantitative collections and observations at 19 different
sites distributed over an area of approximately 50 square miles'. A key stimulus to the development of his and his students' worldviews was comparative analysis of large numbers of entire communities in the field. Perhaps the most important shaper of Shelford's conceptual models was the successional series of communities different distances inshore from the water line of the southern Lake Michigan dunes. His approach linked work on two hierarchical levels of causal associations: autecology and holistic community ecology. Finally, he had a lifelong commitment to the notion that ecologists should be politically active in the environmental movement. Over a long period, he pushed the Ecological Society of America and the National Research Council to be environmentally active and participated in the founding of The Nature Conservancy. In short, Victor Shelford did so much that it takes one's breath away: a simply astonishing life. This book has some important, and disturbing, implications for ecologists. There is a clearly documented causal connection between interdisciplinary training and reading and a realistic ecological worldview. Unfortunately, universities are moving to ever more narrow intradisciplinary specialization, a force we should all resist. Even more importantly, a great deal of field experience in the very diverse biomes appears to be a prerequisite for a comparative style of reasoning, and the formulation of a mature ecological worldview. Further, field courses should link holistic analysis of the community and ecosystem with the associated autecological phenomena. Ubiquitous budgetary crises and an explosion in the number of students taking ecology (perhaps a 40-fold increase in 40 years) are systematically eliminating this type of field training everywhere. Ecologists must try to reverse this trend also. Kenneth E. F. Watt
British Red Data Books, 3. Invertebrates Other Than Insects. Edited by J. B. Bratton. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, 1991. 253 pp. ISBN 1 873701 00 4. Price £8.00, post free from JNCC, Monkstone House, City Road, Peterborough, PE1 1JY.
This publication is an important addition to the British Red Data Books and a companion volume to the earlier one on insects. The status and interest