The history and lasting impacts of Acclimatization Societies
December 9, 2016 1:25 PM   Subscribe

In 1854, a French anatomist named Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire established La Societé Zoologique d’Acclimatation, the first acclimatization society, headquartered in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, where he held a senior position. By 1860, the society had over 2,500 members, including diplomats, scientists, foreign heads of state, and military men. In another forty years, there were over fifty societies around the world, swapping species everywhere from Algiers to Tasmania. Some transplants died quickly, while others thrived, with European rabbits multiplying like, well, rabbits in Australia, European starlings taking down planes and ruining crops in the United States, while the English now battle American grey squirrels (previously). [via Presurfer]

Saint-Hilaire showed an aptitude for mathematics, but was interested in natural history and of medicine, following in his father's footsteps. In fact, Isidore first taught courses in 1829, lecturing on ornithology in his father's place, then in 1837 appointed to act as deputy for his father at the faculty of sciences with the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, and professor of the museum on the retirement of his father in 1841.

But he didn't live in his father's shadow. He was an authority on deviation from normal structure. In 1854 he coined the term éthologie (ethology) for the study of animal behaviour, and is credited with introducing the term teratologie (teratology) for the study of abnormalities of physiological development, and published Histoire générale et particulière des anomalies de l'organisation chez l'homme et les animaux (General and particular history of anomalies of organization in man and animals), which was in Charles Darwin's extensive library (Biodiversity Library with notes [previously, twice]; Internet Archive without notes), along with a number of his other publications.

He also had big ideas about the role of animals in the destiny of humankind (Google books preview), namely that intelligent animals would realize that it was in their best interest to become subservient to the will of people, and in doing so, they would be present to see people make the world a better place. Enter La Societé Zoologique d’Acclimatation, The Zoological Society of Acclimatization. Within a few years of starting their society, they had opened a side branch in French Algeria, as well as the “Jardin d’Acclimatation,” a zoo in Paris filled with all the animals that might soon roam France—Algerian sheep, Angora goats, yaks, elephants, and hippos. (It held other exhibits over the years, including a "human zoo", but is now a children's theme park.)

Not all members of such societies shared Saint-Hilaire's views on a shared destiny. An exceedingly eccentric friend of Darwin, Francis Trevelyan Buckland, thought non-native animals could feed the booming population in England during the industrial revolution, but all they got were some exotic animals on the lawns of rich men, and American squirrels everywhere.

In other cases, animals from their native lands were a comforting sight. When complaining that the swans were black, the eagles white… some mammals had pockets, others laid eggs… and even the blackberries were red (Gbp), you might think that the introduction of a few rabbits could do little harm and might provide a touch of home, in addition to a spot of hunting (PDF) to Australia, as Thomas Austin thought in 1859,and he wasn't the first, but he still gets credit for the persisting plague of rabbits in Australia.

Though the title "Acclimatization Society" has faded from view, they haven't gone the way of exotic animals in the zoos during the Siege of Paris in 1870 (Gbp). In New Zealand, over the course of a hundred years, acclimatisation societies themselves evolved from introducing foreign animals to the island nation to managing and conserving native and naturalized populations and habitats, while the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales learned much more quickly, moving from importing and releasing foreign animals to establishing and caring for zoological gardens. Similarly, the Central Acclimatisation Society of NSW retains its name to this day, but changed its actions to stocking introduced and native fish to support the region for recreation and its economy.

To put this all in perspective, people have been impacting the world by introducing animals and plants to new habitats for a very, very long time. Just as 1492 was not a/the crucial turning point in food history, Acclimatization Societies weren't the first groups to drastically change local landscapes with new pests, and they definitely weren't the last. For an ever incomplete compilation, see Wikipedia's list of introduced species.
posted by filthy light thief (17 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm glad now I never got around to making the post I’d had half-formed in mind on this subject as it wouldn’t have been anything like as good as this one: many thanks flt!
posted by misteraitch at 1:38 PM on December 9, 2016


Okay, I admittedly haven't read all of the links because HOLY HELL what a post. I offer a fun fact about starlings, though. I took an environmental history class in college and the professor told us about the dude who introduced Shakespeare's birds to America. He told us that they only really spread across the country as the interstate highway system developed, because overpasses provided the perfect human-made nesting spots. As the highways moved west, so did the starlings, and now they're one of the commonest birds on the continent.

Apologies if that's already mentioned in one of the forty links above.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:41 PM on December 9, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time ...
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:58 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


mudpuppie, fascinating! I hadn't read that before.

This gets us to Oregon DOT's webpage I-5 Interstate Bridge: Starlings Hazing.

More weird, true history in the annals of trying to introduce foreign species for some potential benefit: Hippo ranching in Louisiana, proposed in 1910 by two adversarial spies (previously) - the two men suggested that hippos could provide meat and take care of the invasive Brazilian Water Hyacinths.

And an actual invasion into Louisiana, with a reverse invasion: Canadian beavers in Argentina, and Argentinian nutria in Louisana.

Bonus: Camel Corps of the US Army, which may have resulted in some camels wandering the American Southwest.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:07 PM on December 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


If you want more weird history, you may enjoy reading Francis T. Buckland's four "series" of Curiosities of Natural History (one, two, three and four, on Archive.org), which seems to be the source of this illustration of the reappearance of icthyosaura, who are discussing the bone or fossil remains of a human skull, talking about the extinct species.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:17 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


One interesting bit for me is the occasional species that is threatened, or even extinct, in their native habitat, but turns into an invasive species elsewhere. For example, the endangered Monterey pine is considered an invasive in Australia.
posted by tavella at 2:28 PM on December 9, 2016 [3 favorites]


I can imagine that's because a species evolved in balance with other species and the natural conditions of soil and weather patterns in one location, but elsewhere that balance is lacking, so they could flourish without competition. I could just be talking out my arse on this, though.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:48 PM on December 9, 2016


Amazing. I wonder what incredibly damaging things we're doing right now that will amuse people in 150 years. Oh wait, I could probably come up with a few...

Also, remember how useful Bart's tree lizards turned out to be... And don't worry, there's no problem that can't be solved with wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes!
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 3:27 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


One interesting bit for me is the occasional species that is threatened, or even extinct, in their native habitat, but turns into an invasive species elsewhere. For example, the endangered Monterey pine is considered an invasive in Australia.

Or the Australian possum which is endangered in Australia but a real nuisance in New Zealand...
posted by suelac at 4:35 PM on December 9, 2016


Chapter 97 of Humans are Idiots. Of course Chapter 214 is President Elect Donald J. Trump.
posted by Bringer Tom at 5:57 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


Or the Australian possum which is endangered in Australia but a real nuisance in New Zealand...

Hardly! 'The common brushtail possum is perhaps the most widespread marsupial of Australia [...] It is the Australian marsupial most often seen by city-dwellers, as it is one of few that thrives in cities, as well as a wide range of natural and human-modified environments'. The International Union for Conservation for Nature rates their conservation status as of 'least concern' (source).
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 7:01 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


Camel Corps of the US Army, which may have resulted in some camels wandering the American Southwest.

I imagine it would have been the same thing with the feral horses being an issue, but dang, it would have been interesting to be driving thru Death Valley and see a camel. Wild camel, ho!!

(Also, since camels were native to North America but died out, it would only be fair, amirite?)
posted by BlueHorse at 10:53 PM on December 9, 2016


Hardly! 'The common brushtail possum is perhaps the most widespread marsupial of Australia

HAH! I should have checked -- that's what I was told when I was in NZ some years ago, and I never bothered to check. Thanks for the correction.
posted by suelac at 8:19 AM on December 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yes, possums delight in living in my roof cavity, eating the fruit and new shoots on my tree, and producing some sort of territorial call that sounds very like a motorcycle being revved up.

The fact that it is specifically illegal to kill them will go far to tell you how most suburbanites hosting them feel.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:42 PM on December 10, 2016


Ugh. Rabbits. Their existence in this country is the reason this 25+ year vegetarian got a shooters licence and bought a rifle. They are an utter pest, and visit destruction on this place both in the form of erosion and food competition with the native animals. I can't see a rabbit and not mentally think 'bang'.
posted by tim_in_oz at 2:14 PM on December 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


To be fair, that's notoriously what rabbits think when looking at each other, too.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:43 PM on December 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


I've always thought that, thousands or hundreds of thousands years into the future, the next intelligent species is going to be totally confused by the severe discontinuity in the fossil record we've created.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 7:58 AM on December 12, 2016


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