Animal Communites in Temperate America as Illustrated in the Chicago Region. A Study in Animal Ecology

The Beginning of Organized Theoretical Principles for Animal Ecology, Inscribed to William Morton Wheeler

Shelford, Victor Ernest (1877-1968). Animal communities in temperate America as illustrated in the Chicago region: A study in animal ecology. xiii, 362pp. Frontispiece, folding map, text illustrations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913. 243 x 168 mm. Original cloth, gilt-lettered spine, hinges repaired. Light finger-soiling in lower corner of book block, but very good. Presentation Copy, inscribed by Shelford to William Morton Wheeler (1865-1937) on the front endpaper: "Compliments of the author Victor E. Shelford." Wheeler's signature on the title.

First Edition of one of the landmark works in ecology, representing "the first systematic attempt to codify terrestrial animal communities" (Elton, The Pattern of Animal Communities, p. 32). Trained as a zoologist, Shelford created the field of animal ecology with this work and later publications such as Bio-Ecology (1939, with F. E. Clements). Shelford helped found the Ecological Society of America and headed the ESA's Committee for the Preservation of Natural Conditions, which later became the Nature Conservancy. He presented this copy of Animal Communities to William Morton Wheeler, professor of applied biology at Harvard's Bussey Institute and one of the foremost experts on ants. Allaby, Ecology: Plants, Animals and the Environment, pp. 152-153.