Monday, October 15, 2007

My Interview with an Ornithologist


­Laura Stegall
English 1001-111
10-16-07
My Interview with an Ornithologist

Burning rubber as I left my dorm on my blue Roadmaster bike, I ran through some questions planned for my student interview. I thought to myself, “Okay, where did you grow up, and what was it like studying birds in different countries.” It was ten o’clock in the morning when I arrived outside of Foster Hall, where I was supposed to conduct my LSU English interview with my Biology 1201 teacher, Dr. Fredrick Sheldon. Dr. Sheldon is an ornithologist, someone who studies birds, a professor at Louisiana State University, and the director of the Museum of Natural Sciences on campus. After I parked my bike, I walked up two flights of stairs to room 204 Foster Hall, quietly knocked on his office door and walked inside.

Dr. Sheldon sat comfortably at his desk answering e-mails among scattered papers in front of me. “Pull up a chair,” he replied to my entrance, as he sat in front of a wall adorned with various pictures of birds. He motioned for me to sit down, and I made myself comfortable. Dr. Fredrick Sheldon was born in New Jersey, and was the youngest of three boys. While growing up, his father worked in New York and his mother was a housewife. He graduated from the private school Montclair Academy. After high school, Sheldon was accepted into the prestigious college, Yale. As he leaned back in his rolling chair, he described that he was “overwhelmed as a freshmen as Yale.” “I was not as aggressive as some of my peers; I wasn’t as good of a student either.” Dr. Sheldon played football and lacrosse at Yale University. He leisurely propped his legs up on top of his desk as he said, “I majored in biology in college. At first I was biochemistry major, but I was more interested in studying wildlife.” As a junior at Yale, Dr. Sheldon took an ornithology class and “loved it.” He explained that Yale has a national history museum with an elaborate bird display. This definitely helped spark an interest in his studying of birds. Sheldon realized that he could make money doing what he enjoyed, exploring wildlife. Reflecting on his childhood, Sheldon said that he grew up in the suburbs catching snakes and frogs. “There wasn’t much wildlife to catch really.” When he began high school that fascination kind of diminished a bit.

Dr. Sheldon had to get a PhD to become an ornithologist. He got a job studying birds after he graduated from Yale. “During that time I did a lot of traveling to study birds,” he said. “After that I went to grad school and got my PhD.” Dr. Sheldon worked for seven years in Philadelphia at the Academy of Natural Sciences, America’s oldest natural history museum. He gained a great deal of knowledge about birds working at the museum.

Sheldon travels to many countries to study birds and the way they act in their habitats. He has visited Malaysia, Australia, South Africa, Ecuador, and India. Of course going to these foreign countries has its risk of disease. Sheldon sighed as he said, “I have to get shots and take pills for different illnesses such as, yellow fever, polio, and malaria.” “Other ways we try to prevent disease is by keeping clean, and being careful of what foods we eat.” Dr. Sheldon has gotten sick several times and has gotten malaria twice. His dark eyes gazed off as he said, “I go to Malaysia every year, usually during the summer. Typically, we go to the city, rent a car, and set up camp out somewhere in the bush for about three weeks.” The group of scientists, usually four to five, set up nets to catch birds; they also cut trails in the forest for exploration. The scientists catch the birds and take blood samples to study their DNA and genetic heritage. “This way we can draw the family tree of a specific species of birds.”

Dr. Sheldon is an evolutionary biologist that studies the behavior and ecology of birds. Sometimes they kill the birds for ecological studies; this is known as collecting. “As scientists, we try to figure out how birds have evolved.” Dr. Sheldon would set up on plantations that grow Oil Palms, which are used to make cooking oil and wood. The natives burn up the forest and plant these fast growing trees to use it as bio fuel and other resources. This is horrible for the lush forest and the creatures that dwell in the rainforests. He spends his time looking at how birds react after they are exposed to their new environment. There is relatively simple ecology in these plantations compared to the animals living in the rainforest. I asked him if he made any discoveries. He replied, “The discoveries we make are primarily on how birds relate genetically, for example the relationship between ducks, geese, and swans.” One of the answers they are searching for is, “Why is there so much diversity between birds in the tropics?” As their research persists they will come closer to the answer.

Dr. Sheldon was caught off guard when I inquired if there were any funny or surprising stories from the trips. He sat pensively touching his graying temples for a few moments until he remembered a story that occurred in Malaysia. “Some scientists and I were hunting birds at night on a dirt road. There was a road block ahead of where we were walking. We were scared to death when a bunch of natives came out with guns pointed at us and asked us what we were doing there.” Sheldon and his colleagues explained that they were scientists studying birds. “Luckily, I can speak some of their native language, Malay, so there wasn’t too much trouble.” He learned to speak Malay visiting in Malaysia over the years.

Leaning forward, Dr. Sheldon said that his favorite part of being an ornithologist was seeing different parts of the world. His least desired part is trying to raise money for the expensive trips in order to do research. “I don’t like having to beg for money from the different agencies that sponsor us, such as the National Science Foundation.”

During Katrina, Professor Sheldon said that he had many more students than expected. He was teaching an Introduction to Biology course at the time. “My classes started to get really full, so I had to slow down the course to make sure everyone was up to speed.” Sheldon was relieved to say that “other than that Katrina didn’t affect” him too much. In addition, Dr. Sheldon has been married to his wife for twenty-six years. He has two teenage sons, Kenny and Ricky; neither of them expresses much interest in ornithology. Over the years, his family has accompanied him on some of his trips to other countries. “They like the adventure for the most part, but they get kind of bored with all of the studies I have to do.” Dr. Sheldon says that he is “fanatical about fishing and duck hunting” and that Louisiana is a great place to do both. Additionally, he is the director of the Museum of Natural Sciences located in Foster Hall; Sheldon is also the curator of genetic resources at the museum. He calmly stated that he has “been a professor at LSU for fourteen years.” I wondered whether he liked teaching or studying birds more. Using deliberate hand gestures, he said that he used to like taking trips for research more, but lately he has enjoyed teaching biology.

Dr. Fredrick Sheldon’s research has greatly improved the Baton Rouge and LSU community. Traveling to different parts of the world provides research for further development in evolutionary biology. As an LSU professor and director of the museum, he has the ability to influence the student community and pass on his extensive knowledge of biology and ornithology.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Very interesting post on Dr. Sheldon. He sounds like an engaging person any bird-love would want to know and work with.
It must have been fun to interview him.