George Schaller

George Schaller holding a snow leopard (http://tieba.baidu.com/p/82464572 ())

Can you imagine what it would be like to change a way that had been the same for decades? To do something never done or tried before? To be around a potentially dangerous animal? You would have to be very daring, wouldn't you? That is exactly what George Schaller was.

George was born in Berlin, Germany, on May 26th, 1933. After World War II, George's family had to move to Missouri in the United States. George was told that he could only take one thing besides clothes. What did George choose? His egg shell collection.

George had always liked the wild. His favorite thing to do as a child was to walk alone in the woods with only a few birds and squirrels as company. He also kept strange pets, such as a woodchuck and a blue heron! He was inspired by a man called Sven Hedin, who wrote about his experiences in the Himalayas. George's dream was to be an explorer just like him.

In his senior year of high school, George took a test to help him choose his occupation. The result was: an interior decorator. George ignored this and applied for admission at the University of Alaska. Later, George was invited on an expedition to the remote Brook's Range in northern Alaska. After the expedition, George finished his master's degree in the University of Wisconsin. He visited a man called Doc Elmen. " Young enough to try something crazy," thought Doc. " George, would you like to study gorillas?" And that's how it all started.

The way to study an animal had always been to kill it and examine the corpse. George was about to change that. In 1959 he started pioneering research on wild gorillas in Africa. After successfully studying them in their natural habitat, he went on to study India's tigers, the Serengeti's lions, snow leopards in the Himalayas, and China's pandas. He then went on to study orangutans in Southeast Asia, jaguars and caimans in South America, and Bactrian camels and Mongolian gazelle in Mongolia. He changed the way that people study animals. You don't have to kill an animal to examine it. You can study it from a distance and leave it alone. This method is much more successful too, since you can also study its behavior.

During his travels George worked to set up peace parks that would include many different species. This would protect them from poachers which George had seen in almost every place he visited. Poachers were everywhere, killing Pandas, chiru, gorillas and other wild animals. George was shocked at how many animals were killed by loss of habitat, poachers and other causes, mostly because by humans. Also so people could study them in their natural habitat.

George Schaller is my hero. He is my hero because he changed the way to study animals and the way that some people feel about conservation. Jane Goodall once said that he was "A brilliant conservationist." And I do agree.