A Brief History of Invasion Biology (2 of 3): Charles Elton, Collossus

Elton is often heralded as fouder of invasion biology. But was he?

Charles Elton’s 1958 book, The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants [EIAP], is often heralded as the founding text of contemporary invasion biology, but that claim misrepresents both Elton’s intentions and the timeline of the field’s development. Without a doubt, the militant language he employed set a bellicose tone that is popular today, but that is arguably a cultural rather than a scientific matter (and more on that later). Regardless, he towers over the scene and demands our attention.

Elton (1900-1991), graduated from Oxford University in zoology in 1922, and spent his entire academic career there. He published four books and well over a hundred papers, and was well-respected by scientists in various fields in the UK and abroad.

By 1925, he was already viewing nature through the lens of combat. At the time, American grey squirrels had been introduced to the UK and were expanding their range to the apparent detriment of native red squirrels. Elton was involved in surveying their movements and in a letter to his mother that year, he wrote:

The [red] squirrels are ... conducting a very hard campaign: they were defeated in Wadham gardens about 1921, and driven out of the University Parks about 1924, and finally left Magdalen Park this year. The advance guard of grey squirrels has just reached Bagley wood, but Shotover and Blenheim park are still pure red. We have a big six-inch [to the mile] map of the district, and I put various coloured pins in, as people bring information in. It is quite warlike.i