Lee Merriam Talbot

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lee Merriam Talbot (born August 2, 1930 in New Bedford , Massachusetts - † April 27, 2021 ) was an American ecologist and geographer specializing in international affairs , ecology, environmental and institutional policy, conservation biologist, and natural resource management .

Life

Talbot's maternal grandfather was Clinton Hart Merriam . In 1951 Talbot was a field biologist at the Arctic Research Laboratory in Point Barrow , Alaska. In 1953 he received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley . When he retired from the United States Marine Corps in 1954 , he was hired by the National Academy of Sciences to study endangered species in Africa and Asia . From 1954 to 1956 he was an ecologist at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), where in 1955 he succeeded in rediscovering the Mesopotamian fallow deer , which had been considered extinct since the 1940s . From 1958 to 1959 he was on a travel grant from the University of California. From 1959 to 1963 he was an ecologist director of the East African Ecological Research Project of the National Academy of Sciences and the governments of Kenya and Tanganyika. From 1959 to 1964 he was a conservation consultant for various African, Asian, Australian and European governments. In 1963 he earned a Master of Arts and in the same year he became a Ph.D. PhD in ecology and geography . From 1963 to 1964 he worked for the United Nations Special Fund as an advisor on wildlife and ecology in Africa. From 1964 to 1965 he was an environmental consultant on the Pacific Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences. From 1964 to 1965 he was director of the IUCN's Southeast Asia program. From 1966 to 1970 he was a resident ecologist in the Office of Environmental Studies of the Smithsonian Institution, during which time he was Scientific Coordinator at the International Biological Program and Assistant Ecologist at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. From 1970 to 1978 he was Senior Scientist at the Council on Environmental Quality .

From 1978 to 1980 he was director of nature conservation and scientific advisor at WWF (World Wildlife Fund). From 1978 to 1983 he was a senior scientific advisor of Conservation and Natural Resources at the International Council for Science (International Council for Science, ICSU) in Paris. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director General of the IUCN.

He has also served as an advisor to WHO , UNESCO , UNEP and the World Bank . Talbot has served on over 20 boards and committees of the National Academy of Sciences and has served as senior scientific advisor to the International Council of Scientific Unions . He has conducted over 130 field trips and research expeditions to remote or unknown areas on five continents. Its bibliography includes 270 scientific, technical and popular science publications, including 17 books and monographs, with some translations into nine foreign languages.

Talbot has been involved in several research projects aimed at protecting endangered species. From 1959 to 1965 he conducted ecological studies in the Serengeti / Masai Mara savannah in East Africa. His dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley (1963), was the first long-term ecosystem study in the region and the first research on large-scale mammalian migrations. In addition to the scientific research, as a result of his efforts, the park boundaries for the Serengeti in Tanganyika (now Tanzania ) were changed and in 1974 the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya was established.

In 1960 he reported that the Arabian oryx no longer existed in its former range on the southern edge of the Rub al-Chali . Believing that any surviving Arabian oryx would be wiped out within the following years, he recommended starting a captive breeding program to save the species. In the 1950s and 1960s, Talbot participated in search expeditions and conservation projects for the Javan rhino , the Sumatran rhino , the Indian rhino , the Asiatic lion , the Bengal tiger , the Syrian wild ass , the Arabian ostrich and Kashmir stag part.

In 1972 he drafted the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Awards

In 1959 he received the Foreign Field Research Program Award of the National Society of Sciences, in 1975 the Albert Schweitzer Medal, and in 1979 the Distinguished Service Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences . In 1981 he was appointed Officier des Ordre national du Lion , one of the highest honors in Senegal. In 1969 he won the CINE Golden Eagle Award for an NBC production on East African Wildlife Conservation and Research. In 1963 he and his wife won the Wildlife Society Award for the monograph The wildebeest in Western Masailand, East Africa , which was praised as an outstanding publication in wildlife management and an ecologist.

Fonts (selection)

  • A Look at Threatened Species. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Morges, Switzerland, 1960
  • Land Use Survey of Narok District, Kenya , 1960
  • Land Use Survey of Narok District, Kenya. Textbook, Humbolt State College, Arcata, California 1961
  • An Introduction to the Landscape: Wildlife and Land Use Ecology in Masaailand and other areas of Southern Kenya and Northern Tanganyika Government Printer, Nairobi, Kenya, 1961
  • The Wildebeest in Western Masailand, East Africa. Wildlife Monographs No. l2, 1963 (with Martha H. Talbot)
  • Renewable Natural Resources in the Philippines; Status, Problems and Recommendations. IUCN International Commission on National Parks, and World Wildlife Fund-US, Washington, DC, 1964 (with Martha H. Talbot)
  • Review: The meat production potential of wild animals in Africa; a review of biological knowledge. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Commonwealth Bureau of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Edinburgh, 1965 (with WJA Payne, HP Ledger, L. Verdcourt, and Martha H. Talbot)
  • Conservation of the Hong Kong Countryside. Government Printer, Hong Kong, 1966 (with Martha H. Talbot)
  • Conservation in South East Asia. IUCN New Series Publication No. l0. IUCN, Morges, Switzerland, 1966 (with Martha H. Talbot)
  • New Principles for the Conservation of Wild Living Resources. Wildlife Monographs No. 59, 1979 (with Sydney Holt)
  • Helping Developing Countries Help Themselves: Toward a Congressional Agenda for Improved Resource and Environmental Management in the Third World. World Resources Institute, Washington DC, 1985
  • Overview of conservation in selected countries of south and southeast Asia. Environment and Policy Institute, East-West Center, Hawaii, 1985
  • To Feed the Earth: Agro-Ecology for Sustainable Development. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC, 1987. Oxford and IBH Publishing Col, Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. (with Michael J. Dover)
  • Dams and the Environment: Considerations in World Bank Projects. World Bank Technical Paper Number 110. World Bank, Washington DC, 1989 (with John A. Dixon and Guy J.-M. Le Moigne)
  • Crise et Opportunite: Environnement et Developpement en Afrique. Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 1992 (with Francois Falloux)
  • Crisis and Opportunity: Environment and Development in Africa. Earthscan Publications, Ltd., London, 1993 (with Francois Falloux)
  • Living Resource Conservation: An International Overview. Marine Mammal Commission, Washington DC, 1996

literature

  • David Hughes-Evans Interview: Profile of Lee M. Talbot The Environmentalist, 2, Elsevier, Sequoia, 1982, pp. 29-34
  • Richard H. Stroud (Ed.): National Leaders of American Conservation Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1985, pp. 375-376
  • Lee Merriam Talbot. American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences, Gale, 2008. Gale In Context: Biography, accessed November 26, 2020

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In memoriam: Lee Talbot. George Mason University, May 11, 2021, accessed May 13, 2021 .
  2. ↑ Dr. Lee M. Talbot receives distinguished 2016 Harold J. Coolidge Medal at IUCN
  3. ↑ Talbot, Lee: A Look at Threatened Species. Fauna and Flora Preservation Society, 1960.
personal data
SURNAME Talbot, Lee Merriam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ecologist and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd August 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH New Bedford , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 2021