Victor Ernest Shelford

Dr. Victor E. Shelford circa 1935

University of Illinois Archives

Quick Facts

Significance:

Zoologist, educator, conservationist, ecological pioneer, author

Place of Birth:

Chemung, New York

Date of Birth:

September 22, 1877

Place of Death:

Urbana, Illinois

Date of Death:

December 27, 1968

Place of Burial:

Urbana, Illinois

Cemetery Name:

East Lawn Cemetery

“Much of the development and even much of the present activity and scope of modern ecology can be traced to the work of Shelford” - Ecological Society of America, 1955 

Victor Ernest Shelford has been called the "father of American animal ecology" because he was one of the first scientists to study natural environments as communities of complex relationships among animals and plants. Beginning at Indiana Dunes, his research led to what became known as "Shelford's law of tolerance," which states that every species is able to successfully live and reproduce only within a defined range of environmental conditions, including temperature, sunlight, soil type and moisture. He also defined the concept of a biome. These fundamental principles of physiological ecology are still taught introductory ecology classes today. Shelford’s contributions include both his indefatigable research and his inspiration to students.

Early Life

Victor Shelford was born September 22, 1877 in Chemung, New York. Following his early education, he taught for Chemung public schools for a few years before attending West Virginia University from 1899-1901. Here he met a professor named William E. Rumsey who was a zoologist and biologist, causing Victor’s interest in zoology and ecology to grow. Victor decided to complete his degree at the University of Chicago, earning his Bachelors of Science in 1903. There he built a relationship with Dr. Henry Chandler Cowles, a scientist and professor accredited with developing early plant ecology. At this time, ecology was a budding new science. Cowles helped introduce the scientific world to Indiana Dunes, where his early studies on changing plant communities helped define plant succession and propel the new field of ecology to the forefront of the scientific world. Dr. Cowles helped Shelford make ecology his life work.

Early Research and Conservation Work

Image caption: Illustrations of tiger beetles by Victor Shelford from his 1917 work "Color and Color-Pattern Mechanism of Tiger Beetles" (Victor E. Shelford | University of Nebraska Museum | Papers in Entomology)

Dr. Henry Cowles made Shelford aware of the possibilities of animal ecology, and his doctoral research on tiger beetles (Cicindela) led him to fit his beetles into the scheme of plant succession that was being formulated by Cowles for the Indiana Dunes region. Cowles noted that as you move away from the lake, plant communities change in a pattern from open sand, to marram grass, to cottonwood trees, jack pines, and then oaks. Shelford came to the Indiana Dunes and found that the distinctive plant communities were also distinctive zones that separated populations of closely related tiger beetle species. He earned a Ph.D in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1907 with his research on duneland tiger beetles. The day after graduation, he married Mabel Brown, daughter of Civil War physician and Chicago doctor Isaac Watson Brown. They had two children, a boy and a girl.

Shelford started teaching at the University of Chicago as an Associate and Instructor in Zoology. His study on tiger beetles quickly expanded his interests to the succession of animal communities in general. Shelford continued research and writing, publishing small pieces that he would compile into his 1913 book, Animal Communities in Temperate America. This seminal book is considered the first substantial volume on animal ecology ever published; and it is generally recognized as furnishing the impetus for getting animal ecology recognized as a distinct biological science. His wife, Mabel, is mentioned in the book for collecting information on the former occurrences of animals now extinct in Chicagoland, as well as other historical matters.

Image caption: In 1913, Dr. Cowles coordinated an International Phytogeographic Excursion, where he led prominent botanists from Europe across the United States. Shelford attended and is standing in back, second from the right. (University of Chicago Department of Botany Records, University of Chicago Library)

Also in 1913, Shelford joined his former professor, Dr. Cowles, and a group of natural scientists from around the globe on a tour of representative places for studying plants in different environments. This was called the International Phytogeographic Excursion. Organized by Dr. Cowles, the group visited various sites across the country including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the sand dunes on the south shore of Lake Michigan. This meeting of the sharpest minds of this budding subject of ecology gave the momentum that led to the formation of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), formed in 1915 by a series of communications between Shelford, Cowles, and Robert Wolcott. In 1914, Shelford had brought up the first discussions concerning a national ecology society, and he was appointed vice-chairman of the organizing committee. In 1915, the Ecological Society of America was established with Victor Shelford as its first president. The Ecological Society of America still exists today, representing the largest organization of professional ecologists in the world.

In 1914, Shelford assumed the role of Biologist in charge of the research laboratories of the Illinois Natural History Survey, a position he held until 1929. That same year he became in charge of marine ecology at Puget Sound Biological Station, where he worked summer months there until 1930. In 1914, he also transferred to the University of Illinois faculty in Champaign-Urbana with the expectation that the university would build him a vivarium and three greenhouses (a vivarium is a place for keeping or studying land animals). The university completed the vivarium in 1916, and today it is known as the Victor E. Shelford Vivarium at 606 E. Healy Street.

Shelford, the Educator

Shelford’s teaching career at University of Illinois would span 32 years. He was an outstanding educator as well as scientist. Although he was not a polished lecturer, he was full of ideas, enthusiasm, and energy. Much like Dr. Cowles, Shelford was legendary for his field trips, where students were expected to do grueling work. His courses were highly field-oriented, with trips every Saturday regardless of the weather or football games, or anything else. Not only did Shelford demand that his students show up for these weekly trips, he fined them for every minute they were late. His group traveled by car, bus, train, and on foot, and scoured cornfields, prairies, woods, dunes, ponds, lakes, rivers, and floodplains from Lake Michigan to Tennessee. The Indiana Dunes were a favorite haunt that he continued to bring students to throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

Victor Shelford led one of the first courses in physiological ecology given in the country. He maintained a special interest in developing methods, equipment, and areas for ecological research. He was greatly concerned with experimental studies both in the laboratory and in the field, and with the fabrication of appropriate equipment and facilities both for promoting research and for training of students. The vivarium building housed much of his special equipment, including climate-simulating cabinets. His ideas, equipment, and methods for such experimental studies were brought together in his book, Laboratory and Field Ecology, 1929. “Dr. Shelford’s success as a teacher was due to his dominant personality and enthusiasm which kept his laboratories full of graduate students. Regimentation irritates him, and he always chafes at the limitations of administrative red tape. He is never afraid of what others will say or think about his work but always does what he thinks is right. His long and somewhat arduous field trips will never be forgotten by his students.”

Later Research and Conservation Work

Preservation of natural areas was of interest to the Ecological Society of America, so in 1917 they formed the Committee on Preservation of Natural Conditions with Shelford serving as chair through 1938. His interest in the study of biotic communities made him a strong advocate for the preservation of representative examples of all major types in as near primitive or natural conditions as possible. He was one of the first to insist that whole communities must be preserved— not just a single species. In 1926, the ESA published Naturalist’s Guide to the Americas, a 761-page volume compiled and edited by Shelford that served as an inventory of preserved natural areas and areas in need of protection.

In 1939, Shelford collaborated with Dr. Frederick E. Clements to publish Bio-Ecology, establishing the major ecological concept of a biome. As a basic unit of the landscape— a biome is a coherent, unified plant and animal community; plants and animals as co-actors form a plant matrix with accompanying animal species, characteristic of local environmental conditions. The biome concept bears theoretical similarity to earlier ideas of life zones and ecological provinces, but with more emphasis on relating animal and plant distributions to each other. With the biome concept established, Shelford set himself on the task of describing all major biomes and seral communities in North and Central America, regarding both the plant and animal constituents. The innumerable trips to all corners of the continent that followed led to his final major book, The Ecology of North America, published in 1963. His wife, Mabel, died unexpectedly in 1940 while on a trip to Panama.

From the Ecological Society of America to The Nature Conservancy

The Ecological Society of America’s preservation committee realized that to save natural areas they needed cooperation between many agencies and organizations, including federal and state agencies, private agencies, and politicians. Year after year, the committee prepared reports on the scientific merit of natural areas, and justifications for saving them. The goal of the ecological information was to affect the management plans of the agencies, but there was limited success in influencing preservation through discussions and lobbying. For years, members of the Society disagreed on the role of the society in preservation. Many regarded it as a scientific body rather than an activist society. Dissent came to a head in 1945 when the ESA passed a referendum which stopped the Society from taking direct action to influence legislation. Shelford felt this was denial on the part of professional ecologists of a responsibility for the preservation of natural areas that was rightfully theirs. Consequently, Shelford organized a new action group, the Ecologist’s Union (EU), which formed in 1946 and whose priorities included vigorous lobbying. This same year Shelford retired from teaching at the University of Illinois.

For the first three years of the EU, Shelford held a special position on the Board of Governors which advised the new organization in its formative years. In 1949, one of Shelford’s previous students, George Fell, became vice president of the organization. Fell and others widened the scope of the group by inviting non-scientists, proving to be a turning point in the conservation movement. In September of 1950, the Ecologist’s Union held its annual meeting. The group decided to reorganize and change its name to The Nature Conservancy, officially incorporating in 1951. Dr. Stanley Cain was elected president, who was one of Dr. Henry Cowles’ previous students. Shelford’s student George B. Fell remained as vice president.

George Fell is credited for changing the focus to protecting land by purchase, not just campaigning; a move that would certainly have been championed by Shelford. Until the emergence of The Nature Conservancy, the focus of conservation was primarily on preserving large, scenic lands. Shelford and Fell helped change the direction of conservation to include all kinds of wild habitats. Among The Nature Conservancy’s first purchases was Volo Bog in Illinois, where Shelford first started taking trips with students back in 1909. The Nature Conservancy is now one of the largest non-for-profit land conservation organization in the world.

In 1968, Dr. Shelford was living with his daughter and family at his old home at 506 W. Iowa Street, Urbana, Illinois. He passed away that December, a few months after his 91^st birthday.

“One can only conclude that Victor Shelford, more than any other one person, because of his researches, ideas, aggressiveness, teaching, and leadership, deserves to be known as the father of animal ecology in this country.” – S. Charles Kendeigh, University of Illinois, 1968.