Elton, Charles Sutherland
British Biologist 1900-1991
Charles Sutherland Elton was born in Liverpool, England. Elton is considered the father of animal ecology. Ecology is the study of the relations between living creatures and their natural environment.
Elton was educated at Liverpool College and then at New College, Oxford. In 1922 he graduated from Oxford with a degree in zoology. At that time, most scientists studying animals emphasized their physical makeup and performed studies in laboratories. However, Elton was more interested in the scientific study of animals in their habitats. While still in college, Elton began this study, making numerous journeys to the Arctic.
In 1927 Elton published his first book, Animal Ecology. It was considered brilliant, and established many of the basic principles of modern animal ecology. He discussed food chains and the food cycle, niches, and the "pyramid of numbers." The pyramid of numbers is an observation about food relationships. A large number of plants feed a smaller number of animals, and these animals in turn provide food for an even smaller number of meat-eating animals. Elton addressed evolution in his 1930 book Animal Ecology and Evolution.
Elton concentrated his studies on how the number of animals in a population was affected by a changing environment. In 1932, he established the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford, which for thirty-five years served as an important center for worldwide studies of ecology. In 1932 Elton became the editor for the newly established Journal of Animal Ecology.
In 1936 he was appointed to prestigious positions at Oxford and Corpus Christi College. Elton's research on mice populations enabled him to assist his country during World War II with the control of rodent pests. He published two books on rodents, Voles, Mice and Lemmings in 1942 and The Control of Rats and Mice in 1954. Other important books were The Ecology of Invasions of Animals and Plants (1958) and The Pattern of Animal Communities (1966).
In 1953 Elton was elected a member of the Royal Society of London and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society in 1967 and the Royal Society's Darwin Medal in 1970. Elton retired from his studies in 1967.
Bibliography
Elton, Charles S. Animal Ecology. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1927. Reprint, London: Science Paperbacks and Methuen, 1966. Reprint: New York: October House, 1966. Reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
———. Animal Ecology and Evolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930.
———. Ecology of Animals. London: Methuen, 1933. Reprint, London: Methuen; New York: John Wiley, 1950. Reprint, London: Science Paperbacks and Methuen, 1966.
———. Exploring the Animal World. London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1933.
———. Voles, Mice and Lemmings: Problems in Population Dynamics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1942. Reprint, Codicote, Herts.: Wheldon & Wesley; New York: Stechert-Hafner, 1965.
———. Ecology of Invasion by Animals and Plants. London: Methuen, 1958. Reprint, London: Chapman & Hall, 1977. Reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
———. Pattern of Animal Communities. London: Methuen; New York; John Wiley, 1966.
McMurray, Emily J., ed. Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1995.
