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Wildlife conflicts run across the globe
Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival recognizes world's foremost field biologist.

By Rebecca Huntington

Wyoming ranchers aren't much different from Tibetan nomads when it comes to attitudes toward wildlife, said George Schaller, who has five decades of field research under his belt and has studied around the globe.

Both cultures depend on livestock for their livelihood and don't take kindly to critters who compete for grass. In Tibet, it's wild asses. In Wyoming, it's wild horses.

Predators are even less welcome on the range. "A Wyoming rancher and Tibetan nomad feel exactly the same way about wolves," Schaller said. "They'd be better off if [wolves] didn't exist."

Schaller drew on the similarities between attitudes in Wyoming and the Tibetan steppe during a recent interview in Jackson. Schaller came to Jackson Hole to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award on Sept. 25 from the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. The festival recognized Schaller, 70, for his work, which has shaped wildlife protection around the world.

Schaller's resume of field studies, books and scientific publications runs to 12 pages. His work helped establish five of the world's wildlife reserves, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Chang Tang Wildlife Reserve in Tibet. Schaller worked as a graduate student with the Muries, Jackson Hole's conservation pioneers, surveying wildlife in Alaska.

Schaller is science director of international programs for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. Before arriving in Jackson, he was in Tajikistan studying Marco Polo sheep, which are declining due to trophy hunting. Right after the Jackson festival, he planned to travel to Bhutan to meet with the government regarding forest preservation.

Schaller said he tries to provide governments with scientific data on wildlife to help officials preserve those species. "Most governments, I've found, are really quite receptive to reasonable suggestions they can carry out."

But from Wyoming range lands to the Tibetan steppe, getting local residents to accept wildlife is difficult.

Not only large predators inspire objections from local residents. Even small rodents may be despised.

Tibetan nomads poison picas because the animals dig holes in the range. Wyoming ranchers do much the same to prairie dogs, he said.

"It's interesting that the attitude of an illiterate Tibetan nomad is the same as a highly educated American rancher," Schaller said.

But there are differences, he said. For herders in other countries losing a sheep to wolves is a matter of not being able to put food on the table, he said. Schaller does not believe that is the case with American ranchers.

"In this country, you're trying to maintain a lifestyle," he said. Ranchers in the United States can afford to be more generous when it comes to conserving wildlife, he said.

"People can give a little something in return for using your land," he said. "[The land] has given you a living, you owe something to the life that's on it. The wolf has as much right to exist as we do."

That's not to say problem wolves should not be removed, he said. But he called removing all wolves "simply immoral."

Preserving keystone species, such as wolves and tigers, preserves habitat that benefits thousands of other species as well, Schaller said, explaining his passion for field work. Also, he acknowledges selfish motives. "I like being in a beautiful area watching intriguing, lovely animals," he said.

Schaller credits wildlife films, such as those featured at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, with inspiring conservation and raising awareness. But filmmakers could do more to take on hard-hitting political issues related to conservation, he said.

Schaller is sharply critical of the Bush administration's environmental policies. "You can reach a balance with development and conservation," Schaller said. "Right now, you have a government that is so anti-environmental, you haven't had anything like that since the 1920s, the Warren Harding administration, which was all about greed."

Schaller is particularly critical of the push to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Schaller helped set aside for wildlife. "It's a good example that just because something is a refuge, just in this country or any other, you have to fight forever, because the minute you turn your back, somebody will try to grab it," he said.

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