George Schaller

George Beals Schaller, born on May 26, 1933, is an American mammalogist, biologist, conservationist, and author. He is known by many as the world's leading field biologist, studying wildlife across Africa, Asia, and South America. Originally from Berlin, Schaller grew up in Germany before moving to Missouri as a teenager.

Today, Schaller serves as vice president of Panthera Corporation and chairs their Cat Advisory Council. He is also a senior conservationist at the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society. His work has helped protect many wild animal species and their habitats around the world.

Early life

George Schaller was born in Berlin, Germany. He studied at the University of Alaska and later earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Schaller went on to work at several universities and research centers, studying animals and nature around the world. He has worked with many organizations to help protect wildlife.

Mountain gorilla research

In 1959, when George Schaller was 26, he went to Central Africa to study and live with the mountain gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes. Before his work, little was known about gorillas in the wild. His book, The Mountain Gorilla: Ecology and Behavior, published in 1963, showed people how smart and gentle gorillas are, changing many ideas about them. In 1964, he wrote another book called The Year of the Gorilla, sharing more about his time with these amazing animals and the efforts to protect them.

The zoologist Dian Fossey, helped by the National Geographic Society and Louis Leakey, continued this important work after Schaller. Together, they helped people see that gorillas are not fierce, but kind and very intelligent, much like humans.

Conservation career

In 1963-1964, George Schaller and his wife studied tigers in Kanha National Park in India. In 1966, they moved to Tanzania to live in the Serengeti, where Schaller did important research on the behavior and movement of big cats in Africa.

Schaller has traveled to many places to study wildlife. In 1973, he went to the Himalayan region of Dolpo in Nepal to study blue sheep and try to see the rare snow leopard. In the late 1970s, he studied animals like jaguars and capybaras in Brazil. In 1980, he did research on giant pandas in China, helping to protect them and learning about their history. His work helped increase panda numbers in the wild. Schaller has also studied animals in Laos, Tibet, and helped create protected areas in several countries to save wildlife from harm.

Conservation results

George Schaller's work has helped protect large areas in the Amazon, Brazil, the Hindu Kush in Pakistan, and forests in Southeast Asia. Because of his efforts, more than 20 parks and preserves have been created around the world. These include Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Shey-Phoksundo National Park in Nepal. One especially important area is the Changtang Nature Reserve, which is one of the largest wildlife refuges in the world. It covers more than 200,000 miles and has been praised for helping to protect natural habitats.

Bigfoot research

George Schaller believes that reports about Bigfoot should be studied seriously by scientists. Even though he feels unsure about the claims, he thinks it's wrong for scientists to dismiss them without looking at the evidence. Schaller worries because no physical proof, like remains or samples, has ever been found to study. He says that with so many sightings, even if most aren't true, there should be some answers, and scientists need to look closely at the remaining cases.

Publications

George Schaller has written more than fifteen books about animals in Africa and Asia, such as Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator–Prey Relations, The Last Panda, and Tibet's Hidden Wilderness. He has also written many magazine articles and scientific papers about tigers, jaguars, cheetahs, leopards, wild sheep, goats, rhinoceroses, and flamingos. For over fifty years, his research has helped protect wildlife around the world.

Awards and recognition

George Schaller has received many awards for his work in protecting animals and nature. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by National Geographic and the Gold Medal from the World Wildlife Fund for helping us understand and protect animals in danger. He also received the International Cosmos Prize, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and was the first person to get the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Beebe Fellowship.

Schaller’s books have also won awards, including the U.S. National Book Award in Science for his book The Serengeti Lion in 1973. In 2008, he received the Indianapolis Prize for his animal conservation work. In 2017, a new type of scorpion was named Liocheles schalleri in his honor.

Further information: Guggenheim Fellowship
Further information: World Wildlife Fund
Further information: endangered species
Further information: International Cosmos Prize
Further information: Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
Further information: National Book Award
Further information: in Science
Further information: American Academy of Achievement
Further information: Indianapolis Prize

Personal life

George Schaller's wife, Kay, studied Anthropology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. They met there and got married in 1957. For almost seven decades, Kay helped George with his fieldwork and worked on his writings. She passed away on March 7, 2023, at the age of 93. They had two sons together.