Biology professor embarks on Galapagos expedition

About 170 years ago, Charles Darwin landed on Galapagos Archipelago, a cluster of islands on the equator 600 miles west of South America, the island that inspired his evolutionary theory.

Monday, Paul Johnsgard, foundation professor emeritus of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, headed to the same place where Darwin first spotted the giant tortoises that live only on Galapagos.

Unlike Darwin, who went on the voyage to the remote islands with a captain and crew members on a ship, Johnsgard will take this trip with a small crew: Allison Johnson, a high school junior from Scottsbluff and two of his former students, Josef Kren, now a professor at Midland Lutheran College and Linda Brown, a pharmacist of Lincoln.

“We are going to see how the animals, birds and plants on Galapagos have adapted themselves to the unique environment,” Johnsgard said. “So that we can compare the natural lives that live here in the Great Plains with those on the islands.”

At his office in Manter Hall the 73-year-old scholar seemed very excited showing the map of South America.

“This is Galapagos,” Johnsgard said, pointing to the small groups of islands near South America. “We’re going to rent a yacht to see around the island.

“The giant tortoises that live there are this big,” Johnsgard said, using his hands to show the size of the giant creatures whose measure is 6 feet from head to tail, and weight is over 500 pounds.

It is hard to find trace of illness in this energetic professor who taught zoology, ecology, ornithology and animal behavior at UNL for 40 years. But Johnsgard is not illness-free. He had his first heart attack in 1984 and had a heart surgery in 1989.

“I try not to think about my age,” Johnsgard said. “I can rest when I am dead.”

He is a nationally known ornithologist and conservationist who, in March, received the National Conservation Achievement Award in Science from the National Wildlife Federation at Washington, D.C.

He said his love of nature started when he was young. Johnsgard was born in North Dakota where he obtained bachelor degrees in zoology and botany. He went on to study waterfowl behavior for his Master of Science at Washington State University and received his doctorate at Cornell University.

His adoration for birds, animals, fish and plants does not stop at the scientific and academic level. He has had artistic interest in the animals as well.

“I started drawing birds, mammals and fish since I was 5 (years old),” he said.

Many of his illustrations can be found in the books he has written and along with drawing he said he also enjoys woodcarving –one of his works was on display at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery in 1971 – and taking photographs.

Johnsgard came to Nebraska when he accepted a teaching and research position from UNL in 1961. It was that year, at the University of Nebraska State Museum, when he was able to identify the two specimens of ivory-billed woodpecker that had been unidentified until that time.

The correctly-identified rare woodpecker couple with one pileated woodpecker and two Eskimo curlew are exhibited at the museum currently throughout the month of September.

Johnsgard has also long been associated with cranes. He wrote several books on the Sandhill Cranes that visit Nebraska every spring in flocks of half a million.

The crane spring migration now draws tens of thousands of people from around the country and the world, helping the state tourism industry and the local community. But according to Paul Tebbel, director of the Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon, that would not have happened had it not been for Johnsgard.

“(He) raised the spectacle of the crane migration to a new level,” Tebbel said.

“People started coming to Nebraska in the mid-1970s. At that time, it was still a small number of people who heard about it from other people."

But when Johnsgard spoke about and wrote several books on cranes in such glowing terms, it was the biggest publicizing, Tebbel said.

Johnsgard said he prefers writing to speaking because writing is more effective.

“I taught about 6,000 students at the university,” he said. “For all those 40 years, that is all I could reach. When I write a book, I can easily reach 20,000 readers.”

He’s written about 50 books so far; the subjects include various birds such as cranes, waterfowls, hawks and eagles; dragons and unicorns; Lewis and Clark and prairie dogs.

His philosophy on life matches his desire to continue studying and educating others on animals.

“We have limited time on earth,” he said. “So I want to spend the best time of it. We should use the time to keep the best we have on this earth.”

The ornithologist, whose favorite scientist is Charles Darwin, cannot make woodcarvings anymore after a stroke in 1996 left his left arm immobile. At the time, he was climbing a mountain in Costa Rica for a birding trip.

But the fear of another stroke or heart attack does not make him hesitant to go on a trip to remote islands celebrating his 74th birthday in June.

“I’d rather die on Galapagos than in my rocking chair at home,” he said.