THE ECOLOGY OF 

 ANIMALS 



CHAPTER I 

 THE SCOPE OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY 



LpCOLOGY, in the sense of a knowledge of natural 

 -^ history, dates from the earliest times when man 

 began to put two and two together and exploit the 

 natural resources of his surroundings in order to 

 increase material comfort and security. Primitive 

 races still have this knowledge developed to a high 

 degree. The Arawak of the South American equa- 

 torial forest knows where to find every kind of animal 

 and catch it, and also the names of the trees and 

 the uses to which fhey can be put (Hingston, 1932). 

 The Masai of Central Africa knew for hundreds of 

 years that malaria was caused by the bite of a 

 mosquito and that red water in cattle and heart 

 water in sheep were carried by ticks (Percival, 1924). 

 The Eskimo goes on the assumption that diseases in 

 his sledge dogs can be caught from the wild Arctic 

 fox (Elton, 19316), and knows what time of year to ex- 

 pect the arrival of seals and ptarmigan. The natives 

 of Shansi knew the connexion between periodic irrup- 

 tions of the sandgrouse and chmatic changes and 

 famine and have a saying ' when the sandgrouse fly 

 by, wives will be for sale ' (Rockhill, 1894). This 

 intense understanding of wild life can be matched 

 among some of those men in our own country who 



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