Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

we might say today and led to deep and comprehensive conclusions that were
published in a number of large monographs as well as smaller scientific papers.
Then, after those formative early years in research, I chose to study the huge
whales, blue and fin, as well as the largest toothed whale, the sperm whale. This took
me on a seven-month voyage on the vast Southern Ocean as a whaling inspector. At
the time this was the only feasible way to study the lives of Antarctic whales, by
deduction and extrapolation from their dead bodies; it was a daunting task, but I was
young and confident. This work too was very productive and like the elephant seal
work was applied to conservation and management in the face of insuperable
practical, commercial and international political difficulties.
So it was with some relief that I returned to shore by way of the freshwater
hippopotamus, another fascinating species that was little known and under threat
from increasing human populations. I was able to conduct experimental studies of
population ecology and biology. Then I went on to apply my now unique experience
to the African elephant and tropical ecosystems in high and low rainfall regimes.
Again I strove for a combination of rigorous research, management and conservation
– again eventually frustrated by politics, this time the African variety.
Returning to the Antarctic in the 1970s my research was on other seals, especially
the crabeater, the world’s most abundant species of seal. However I was now mainly
involved in scientific administration, logistics and various other varieties of politics,
including academia. Nearing my 80 th year I am still writing papers on seals,
hippopotamuses and elephants.
As well as the very large mammals I observed other animals and polar and
tropical ecosystems in general. The variety of birds and mammals in the East African
savannahs, forests and woodlands that I encountered in the middle of my research
career was staggering compared with the more limited Antarctic faunas centred on
seals, whales, penguins, petrels, albatrosses and krill. I also published on aerial
surveys of East African vegetation and on the growth of bush, woodland and
rainforest trees in relation to elephant usage. Later I drew attention to ecological
interactions in the Southern Ocean between the physical environment and the
various trophic levels over time, that was probably set in train by the
overexploitation of the large whales. I have published papers in scientific journals
covering all these fields.
The wide horizons of the title were both physical and intellectual. In physical terms
they encompassed the endless Antarctic lands and the surrounding great waters, as
well as extensive African savannahs, forests and bushland, and the lakes and rivers
of several countries. Flying at ten thousand feet over the icefields of the Weddell Sea,
or above the polar plateau, there was virtually no horizon, so wide was it; the same
was true of East Africa. As well as the limitless plains of Africa there were wide
political horizons to confront there, as in later years on the multinational stage of
Antarctic science and politics.
The time horizon has been broad, and my research has already covered almost six
decades. When I began my studies ecology was anecdotal, still emerging from
natural history and little known to the General Public. Even life-tables, discovered
7