John Terborgh

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American biologist (born 1936)

title: "John Terborgh" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-conservation-biologists", "21st-century-american-biologists", "harvard-college-alumni", "macarthur-fellows", "living-people", "members-of-the-united-states-national-academy-of-sciences", "1936-births", "fellows-of-the-ecological-society-of-america", "duke-university-faculty", "princeton-university-faculty"] description: "American biologist (born 1936)" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Terborgh" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American biologist (born 1936) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
nameJohn W. Terborgh
imageJohn Terborgh-Duke University.jpg
birth_date
birth_placeWashington, D.C.
nationalityAmerican
fieldsConservation biology
workplaces
awards
signatureSignature of John Terborgh.png
education
::

| name = John W. Terborgh | image = John Terborgh-Duke University.jpg | birth_date = | birth_place = Washington, D.C. | nationality = American | fields = Conservation biology | workplaces = | awards = | signature = Signature of John Terborgh.png | education =

John Whittle Terborgh (born April 16, 1936) is a James B. Duke Professor of Environmental Science at Duke University and co-director of the Center for Tropical Conservation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and for the past thirty-five years, has been actively involved in tropical ecology and conservation issues. An authority on avian and mammalian ecology in Neotropical forests, Terborgh has published numerous articles and books on conservation themes. Since 1973, he has operated the Cocha Cashu Biological Station, a tropical ecology research station in Manú National Park, Peru.

Research career

Raised in Arlington, Virginia, Terborgh graduated from Harvard College in 1958 and received his PhD in plant physiology from Harvard University in 1963. He served on the faculty of the University of Maryland and then, for 18 years, on the faculty of Princeton University. In 1989, Terborgh moved to Duke University, where he joined the faculty of the (now) Nicholas School of the Environment and founded the Duke University Center for Tropical Conservation.

One of the defining features of Terborgh's research is field work in relatively difficult to access tropical regions. Terborgh studied the elevational distributions of tropical birds in New Guinea with college classmate and friend Jared Diamond, and in Peru. Terborgh's study of how competition limits bird ranges involved surveying the Cerros del Sira, "a corner of the world so remote that one must travel a full week to obtain even the most trivial supplies". The Acknowledgements of this paper state "[Terborgh]'s life was saved in a grueling ordeal of emergency by the extraordinary exertions of several unnamed Campa Indians and four Peruvian assistants...".

He has served on several boards and advisory committees related to conservation, including the Wildlands Project, Cultural Survival, The Nature Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund and both the Primate and Ecology Specialist Groups of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Terborgh and his work were among several featured in the documentary film, The Serengeti Rules, which was released in 2018.

Major scientific contributions

Terborgh's biography for the MacArthur award states: "Terborgh pioneered the field use of experimental analysis techniques in his early work on the altitudinal distribution of neotropical birds and on the role of competition in bird community structure."This work, along with that of Jared Diamond, highlighted the importance of competition in governing the elevational distributions of tropical birds, in contrast to competing ideas at the time that these distributions were largely governed by bird's climate tolerance.

Terborgh's work has also highlighted the importance of predators in keeping herbivores in check, thus allowing plants to thrive (known as the 'Green Earth' hypothesis).

Awards and honours

In June 1992, Terborgh was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his distinguished work in tropical ecology, and in April 1996 he was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from The National Academy of Sciences for his research, and for his book {{cite book |title=Diversity and the Tropical Rainforest}} In 2005, he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation during the organization's annual meeting held in Uberlândia, Brazil.

Publications

Terborgh is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and popular essays, and author or editor of several books:

  • {{cite book |title=Requiem for Nature |pages=256 |publisher=Island Press |year=2004 |isbn=1-55963-588-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=512f_XIRjVEC
  • {{cite book |title=Making parks work: strategies for preserving tropical nature |publisher=Island Press |year=2002 |isbn=1-55963-905-9 |pages=511 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sQtZ7XRGUwC
  • {{cite book |title=Diversity and the Tropical Rain Forest |pages=242 |publisher=Scientific American Library |year=1992 |isbn=0-7167-5030-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kZKaMQEACAAJ
  • {{cite book |title=Where Have All the Birds Gone? Essays on the Biology and Conservation of Birds That Migrate to the American Tropics |pages=224 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1989 |isbn=0-691-02428-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGN508ZLowEC
  • {{cite book |title=Five New World Primates: A Study in Comparative Ecology |pages=260 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1983 |isbn=0-691-08338-X

References

References

  1. "John Terborgh".
  2. Bateman, Daniel. (2015-10-24). "Indiana Jones' of ecology right at home at JCU in Cairns". [[The Cairns Post]].
  3. "John W. Terborgh {{!}} Nicholas School of the Environment".
  4. Laichas, Tom. (May 2005). "A Conversation with Jared Diamond". World History Connected.
  5. (1967). "Observations on Bird Distribution and Feeding Assemblages along the Rio Callaria, Department of Loreto, Peru". The Wilson Bulletin.
  6. (1970). "Niche Overlap in Feeding Assemblages of New Guinea Birds". The Wilson Bulletin.
  7. Terborgh, John. (1971). "Distribution on Environmental Gradients: Theory and a Preliminary Interpretation of Distributional Patterns in the Avifauna of the Cordillera Vilcabamba, Peru". Ecology.
  8. (1975). "The Role of Competition in the Distribution of Andean Birds". Ecology.
  9. "Wildlands Network".
  10. "'The Serengeti Rules': Film Review".
  11. (2022-07-22). "Interspecific competition limits bird species' ranges in tropical mountains". Science.
  12. MacArthur, Robert H.. (1984-07-21). "Geographical Ecology: Patterns in the Distribution of Species". Princeton University Press.
  13. "Predators Keep The World Green, Ecologists Find".
  14. (2001-11-30). "Ecological Meltdown in Predator-Free Forest Fragments". Science.
  15. "John W. Terborgh".
  16. "John W. Terborgh — MacArthur Foundation".
  17. National Academy of Sciences. "Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal".
  18. (2013-07-31). "ATBC Honorary Fellows".

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american-conservation-biologists21st-century-american-biologistsharvard-college-alumnimacarthur-fellowsliving-peoplemembers-of-the-united-states-national-academy-of-sciences1936-birthsfellows-of-the-ecological-society-of-americaduke-university-facultyprinceton-university-faculty