The Value and Necessity of Natural History Studies of Waterbirds

Natural history is the study of organisms in their environments, and has an historic role as the foundation for ecological and biological sciences (e.g., Jerdon 1874). The centrality of natural history was emphasized by Elton (1927) who defined ecology as “scientific natural history.” As an accounting of the “history” of nature, natural history studies entail personal involvement; indeed, even the etymology of “history” suggests seeing, knowing, and accounting of one’s inquiries and knowledge (www.etymonline.com). In this paper, we trace the use and the scientific and social values of natural history studies, provide cautions on overreliance on technologies at the cost of personal experience of nature, suggest the potential role of natural history studies to address issues of social inequities, and conclude with support for natural history studies particularly of waterbirds to significantly contribute to community involvement and advance scientific inquiry. Natural history observations provide insight into natural phenomena and processes not necessarily requiring deep methodological scopes, intricate quantitative measurement, and statistical analysis, but still consisting of more than just a mere collection of incidental or anecdotal observations. Natural history studies require scientific rigor and must lend to repeatability, as replication is a hallmark of science, and to validation by the scientific community, and can further serve as a basis for generating hypotheses for more rigorous testing. Working at its best, natural history observation can open the door to new perspectives and relationships previously unreported and unsuspected (Ricklefs 2012).