History of Science and Technology Colloquium

Paul L. Errington and Aldo Leopold's field study of bobwhite quail in southwestern Wisconsin was a significant episode in the early (inter-war) history of wildlife ecology. It produced an ecological theory of predation, which focused on the whole environment. I will use this case study to develop a general concept of what I call "residential" science, a highly intensive, localized, and observational kind of field practice, for which local cultural practices (like hunting and trapping) were important models, and which is best regarded as a kind of land-use. Parallels will be drawn between Errington's ecological theory of predation and Leopold's developing environmental philosophy of "land-health."