Valerius Geist

Valerius Geist (born February 2, 1938) is a Canadian biologist and a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary. He is a specialist on the biology, behavior, and social dynamics of North American large mammals (elk, moose, bighorn sheep, other wild ungulates and wolves).

Valerius Geist
Valerius Geist in 2011
Born	February 2, 1938 Mykolaiv, Ukraine, USSR
Alma mater	University of British Columbia
Scientific career
Fields	Ethology Mammalogy
Institutions	University of Calgary
Thesis	On the behaviour and evolution of American mountain sheep (1966)
Doctoral advisor	Ian McTaggart-Cowan
Other academic advisors	Konrad Lorenz

Biography

He was born on February 2, 1938 in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, USSR and raised in Austria and Germany.[1] In 1961 he married the biologist Renate Geist, nee Brall (1937 - 2014)[2]

He holds an honours B.Sc. in zoology (1960), and a Ph.D. in zoology (1967), both from the University of British Columbia. He completed his postdoctoral studies in Seewiesen, Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology (1967-1968) under Konrad Lorenz. His doctoral thesis was entitled On the behaviour and evolution of American mountain sheep.[3]

Since 1977, he has taught at the University of Calgary, where he is a founding member and first Program Director of Environmental Science in the Faculty of Environmental Design.[4] He now resides on Vancouver Island, B.C.

Scientific and public work

Valerius Geist is known for his scientific research on the behavior and population biology of many wild ungulate species and canids. After a period of supporting the keeping of game in ranches as a way to use the animals while protecting them, he warned that the Alberta government's recommendation to keep deer in enclosures was a mistake both scientifically and economically. When calamities caused by disease and the collapse of the market forced many ranchers to slaughter their animals and close their farms, this was confirmed.[5]

Geist is of the opinion that wolves are most likely to fulfill their ecological function in unpopulated and very thinly populated areas. His publications on wolves include as topics also the development of great shyness towards humans by hunting, hybridization with coyotes, where distribution areas of both species overlap, hybridization with domestic dogs in areas populated by humans, and diseases spread by wolves, for example the dog tapeworm, whose larval stages lead to Hydatid disease in herbivores and humans. [6] By triggering panicky flight behavior in deer packs and causing them to migrate, wolves promote the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.

In his lectures and writings he points out that wolves cause serious damage to wildlife and that they cause great suffering to wild ungulates such as white-tailed deer, wapiti, elk and bison by condemning them to a slow, agonising death when they are torn.

The paradigm of the self-regulation of nature is, according to his findings, a simple-minded intellectual error. The mechanisms of negative feedback assumed in this concept would not work like this in nature, but selfreinforcing effects would lead to a decline in biodiversity. With active wildlife management and care, humans can achieve a much greater biodiversity and productivity of ecosystems. Humans can save the game the brutality of getting torn by wolves. Hunters practicing ethical hunting would treat game far more humanely than "nature" does.[7]

Regarding the behavior of wolves towards human beings he describes seven steps from strong shyness and avoiding the nearness of the human, then searching anthropogenic food sources and habituation, then possible explorative attacks, in which they only approach, up to predatory attacks on people, that usually take place only under the precondition that the seven steps described by him are passed through.[8][9]

Geist also worked in the field of palaeozoology of ungulates and canids and researched the differences in the ecological status of wolves in the pleistocene Megafauna and the present wild fauna.[10]

He has acted as an expert witness in many areas, including animal behavior, environmental policy, native treaties, wildlife law enforcement and policy, and wildlife/vehicle collisions cases in the United States and Canada. He has testified on wildlife conservation policy in court, before Senate of the State of Montana and before the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, and Sustainable Development in Ottawa.

Awards

Geist won the Wilderness Defenders Award from the Alberta Wilderness Association in 2004.[11] He is the only North American hunter to be honored with professional membership in both the Boone and Crockett Club[12] and its European counterpart, the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (Conseil International de la Chasse).

Selected publications

• Gray wolves and the black side of the "Nature knows best" dogma, or how hands-on management is vital to high biodiversity, productivity and a humane treatment of wildlife". In: Beiträge zur Jagd- & Wildforschung, Band 44, 2019, page 65-71
• Living on the Edge: The Mountain Goat's World, by Valerius Geist, Dale E. Toweill, October 19, 2010
• Valerius Geist (2009): Wolves – When Ignorance Is Bliss
• Valerius Geist (2007): Circumstances leading to wolf attacks on people
• Valerius Geist; Will N. Graves: Wolves in Russia - Anxiety Through the Ages. Detselig Enterprises 2007. ISBN 978-1-55059-332-7
• Valerius Geist: Wolves on Vancouver Island
• Moose: Behavior, Ecology, Conservation, by Valerius Geist, Robert Wegner (Foreword By), Michael H. Francis (Photographer), November 26, 2005
• Whitetail Tracks: The Deer's History & Impact in North America, by Valerius Geist, Michael H. Francis (Photographer) September 2001
• Antelope Country: Pronghorns: The Last Americans, by Valerius Geist, Michael H. Francis (Photographer) 2001
• Return of Royalty: Wild Sheep of North America, by Valerius Geist, Dale E. Toweill, Ken Carlson (Illustrator) 1999
• Mule Deer Country, by Valerius Geist, Michael H. Francis, October 31, 1990
• Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behaviour, and Ecology, by Valerius Geist, Swan Hill Press (February 16, 1999)
• Buffalo Nation: History and Legend of the North American Bison, by Valerius Geist, May 9, 1998 (also 1996)
• Wildlife Conservation Policy, by Valerius Geist and Ian McTaggart-Cowan October 15, 1995
• Wild Sheep Country, by Valerius Geist, Michael H. Francis (Photographer), September 1993
• Elk Country, by Valerius Geist, June 1993 (also 1991)
• Life Strategies, Human Evolution, Environmental Design: Toward a Biological Theory of Health, by Valerius Geist, January 26, 1979
• Mountain Sheep: A Study in Behavior and Evolution. Wildlife Behavior and Ecology Series, by Valerius Geist, 1971

References

1. ALBERTA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION: Wildlife Scientist Devotes Rich Life to Educating the Public
2. Renate Anna Gertrude Ida (Brall) GEIST
3. Geist, Valerius (September 8, 1966). "On the behaviour and evolution of American mountain sheep" – via open.library.ubc.ca.
4. Google books: About the author
5. Andy Marshall: Wildlife Scientist Devotes Rich Life to Educating the Public
6. Wolf education international: Global Socioeconomic Impact of Cystic Echinococcosis
7. Valerius Geist: Wolves and the dark side of the dogma "nature knows best", or why practical management is vital for high biodiversity, productivity and a humane treatment of wildlife. In: Beiträge zur Jagd- und Wildforschung. No 44, page 65-71
8. Wolf education international: When do wolves become dangerous to humans?
9. When Ignorance Is Bliss
10. Valerius Geist, Leonid Baskin: Predator pits or biological deserts in Siberia and North America
11. "Alberta Wilderness Defenders Awards".
12. Valerius Geist: Large Predators: Them and Us!

• "Valerius Geist". The MARK. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
• "Valerius Geist". Science.ca. October 15, 2001. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
• Canadian Who’s Who 1993
• Nature Canada, Spring, 1987