Ian McTaggart-Cowan (June 25, 1910 – April 18, 2010) was a Scottish-Canadian

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, conservationist, and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for ...

. He has been called "the father of Canadian ecology". He was the brother of meteorologist

Patrick McTaggart-Cowan Patrick Duncan McTaggart-Cowan, (May 31, 1912 – October 11, 1997) was a Canadian meteorologist and the first president of Simon Fraser University. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, he moved to North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with his ...

Life and career

McTaggart-Cowan was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, and moved to North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with his family when he was three years old. He completed studies at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

and then at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, where he studied

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

under Joseph Grinnell. Upon returning to Canada, he took up a position at the provincial museum in British Columbia (later renamed the Royal British Columbia Museum) for six years. He next took a professorship at the

, where he established the first university wildlife program in Canada. McTaggart-Cowan was active in early studies of

British Columbia Provincial Parks The following list of protected areas of British Columbia includes all federally and provincially protected areas within the Canadian province of British Columbia. As of 2015, approximately 15.46% of the province's land area and 3.17% of the p ...

and Canada's Rocky Mountain National Parks. More so than many other ecologists of the time, McTaggart-Cowan stressed the importance of studies of individual variation, in addition to population-based studies. McTaggart-Cowan supervised more than 100 graduate students; many became eminent scientists in academia and government. According to his own recollection, at one point, the wildlife division of every

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

that had one was being headed by one of McTaggart-Cowan's former students. Among the more than 275 publications which he authored or coauthored is the comprehensive, encyclopedic four-volume ''Birds of British Columbia'', to which he was a major contributor. McTaggart-Cowan had secret annual meetings with American

Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his ...

and other conservation biologists to discuss educating the public about

nature conservation Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values unde ...

. He warned about the ecological dangers of

pesticides Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampric ...

and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

long before they became well-known problems. McTaggart-Cowan acted as an environmental advocate within the confines of the political system, by writing to government ministers. He was influential in the field of wildlife management, ending the previously widespread practice of awarding bounties for the killing of "undesirable" wildlife species in Canada. McTaggart-Cowan was the head of the University of British Columbia's Zoology Department from 1953 to 1964, whereupon he became the Dean of Graduate Studies. After his retirement in 1975, McTaggart-Cowan served as the chancellor of the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

from 1979 to 1984. He was an avid hunter and a respected philatelist. He was a pioneer of science television, including hosting the series '' Fur and Feather'', ''

The Living Sea ''The Living Sea'' is a 70mm American documentary film exploring marine locales intended to show the importance of protecting the ocean, released to IMAX theaters in 1995. It is narrated by actress Meryl Streep, with music by Sting, produced by ...

'', and ''

Web of Life A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one ...

''. In total, he was the co-author of six teaching films on mammalian behaviour, 110 educational television programs, and more than 200 radio broadcasts. He was the first to broadcast

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisibl ...

images of

microorganisms A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

on television. He also reportedly started the broadcasting career of

David Suzuki David Takayoshi Suzuki (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at th ...

by hiring him to follow in his footsteps. The Cowan Vertebrate Museum in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

was named in his honour, as are a number of awards. He was the recipient of multiple honorary degrees, including honorary

D.Sc. Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

degrees from the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and the University of Northern British Columbia, and LL.D. degrees from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

and Simon Fraser University. At the time of his death in 2010, McTaggart-Cowan had received more awards than almost any other Canadian scientist. The Ian McTaggart-Cowan Archive, housed at the University of Victoria Special Collections and University Archives, incorporates more than 7,000 handwritten pages from his field research.

Personal life

McTaggart-Cowan was married for more than 70 years to Joyce McTaggart-Cowan (née Racey), the daughter of his mentor Kenneth Racey. They had a son, Garry, and a daughter, Ann.

Select awards and honours

McTaggart-Cowan's awards and honours included: * Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

(1946) * Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America (1955) * Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(1955) * Fellow of the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

(1955) * Canadian Centennial Medal (1967) * Officer of the Order of Canada (1972) *

Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal (french: link=no, Médaille du jubilé d'argent de la reine Elizabeth II) is a commemorative medal created in 1977 to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. The medal is p ...

(1977) * Officer of the

Order of British Columbia The Order of British Columbia (french: Ordre de la Colombie-Britannique) is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Instituted in 1989 by Lieutenant Governor David Lam, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier B ...

(1991)

References

External links

Cowan Vertebrate Museum biography

Ian McTaggart Cowan Field Journals

Ian McTaggart-Cowan video interview (2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:McTaggart-Cowan, Ian Canadian zoologists Canadian ecologists Canadian conservationists Canadian naturalists Canadian philatelists Canadian university and college chancellors Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Officers of the Order of Canada Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the Order of British Columbia University of California, Berkeley alumni University of British Columbia alumni University of British Columbia faculty Canadian television hosts 1910 births 2010 deaths Scientists from Edinburgh Scottish emigrants to Canada

Life and career

Personal life

Select awards and honours

References

Further reading

External links