Fawn protection efforts in France (2026 0426 France24 )。 喬治·比爾斯·夏勒（英語：George Beals Schaller，1933年—）In her engaging, lyrical “Homesick for a World Unknown,” Miriam Horn tells the story of the famed naturalist George Schaller.

 2026 0426 France24

AI Overview

Fawn protection efforts in France are focused heavily on mitigating the high mortality rates caused by agricultural mowing, which coincides with the peak birthing season in May and June. Local hunting federations and conservation groups have adopted advanced technology to proactively rescue young roe and red deer from farming machinery. 

Key Fawn Protection Initiatives

• Thermal Drone Rescues: Local hunting federations across France use thermal imaging drones to locate young fawns hidden in tall grass before tractors arrive. The drones identify the heat signature of the fawn, allowing volunteers to safely move them.
• High-Tech Coordination: These rescue operations involve certified drone pilots, farmers, and hunters working together. In 2025, hunters reported saving over 1,000 fawns since May 1st using this method.
• "Leave It There" Approach: Conservationists emphasize that fawns are rarely abandoned, even if found alone. Their primary survival strategy is to remain still and scentless. Public awareness campaigns advise against touching fawns, as this can cause the mother to abandon them.
• Rewilding and Habitat Management: Initiatives like the Arc-Châteauvillain Integral Forest Reserve (northeastern France) allow thousands of hectares to return to nature, reducing human disturbance and creating safer breeding grounds for red and roe deer. 

Threats to Fawns

• Agricultural Machinery: The most significant threat to fawns is mowing, which can lead to accidental, high-mortality events, according to FACE - European Federation for Hunting and Conservation.
• Climate Change: Earlier springs are driving earlier mowing seasons, which can clash with the peak of deer births, increasing the risk of fatalities. 

These efforts reflect a growing "Bambi effect" where high public engagement in protecting "attractive" species (like deer) is now being leveraged to push for broader biodiversity conservation in French agricultural ecosystems, notes ResearchGate. 

-----

The greater tragedy, as Schaller himself recognized, is the fate of the animals he came to know so intimately. His deft diplomacy on their behalf has given them a fighting chance, with protected parks in China, Afghanistan and a half-dozen other countries — amounting to over 200,000 square miles. More important still are the generations of local conservationists and wildlife scientists that Schaller encouraged and helped to train — and the governments that now see wildlife parks as a source of both revenue and national pride.

But as Horn concludes, “the disaster that Schaller witnessed across decades grows ever more dire,” with a million species worldwide on a “spiral to extinction” in the face of overhunting, habitat destruction and climate change. Schaller found his deepest satisfactions by disappearing into the last wildernesses, his eyes wide open. We could all stand to learn from his humility.

Miriam Horn’s biography chronicles a man who remains, in many ways, as unknowable as his mysterious subjects. Credit...Evelyn Floret/The LIFE Picture Collection, via Shutterstock

HOMESICK FOR A WORLD UNKNOWN: The Life of George B. Schaller, by Miriam Horn

Lessons From the Wild, Elusive Life of a Conservation Giant

In her engaging, lyrical “Homesick for a World Unknown,” Miriam Horn tells the story of the famed naturalist George Schaller.

Schaller and Fossey were instrumental in dispelling the public perception of gorillas as brutes, by demonstrably establishing the deep compassion and social intelligence evident among gorillas, and how very closely their behavior parallels that of humans.^[10]

No one who looks into a gorilla's eyes – intelligent, gentle, vulnerable – can remain unchanged, for the gap between ape and human vanishes; we know that the gorilla still lives within us. Do gorillas also recognize this ancient connection?^[15]

維基百科，自由的百科全書

2005年8月10日喬治·夏勒在北京動物園科普館做講座——高原上的生靈，他手中拿著的是給藏羚羊幼崽佩戴的無線電發報器

喬治·比爾斯·夏勒（英語：George Beals Schaller，1933年—）是一位美國動物學家、博物學家、自然保護主義者和作家。他一直致力於野生動物的保護和研究，在非洲、亞洲、南美洲都開展過動物學研究，曾被美國《時代周刊》評為世界上三位最傑出的野生動物研究學者之一。曾任國際野生動物保護學會（前身是紐約動物學會）的負責人。現為非牟利野生動物保護組織Panthera Corporation的副主席。他是第一個受委託在中國為世界自然基金會（WWF）開展工作的西方科學家。

George Beals Schaller
Schaller at a 2005 lecture in the Beijing Zoo
Born	May 26, 1933 (age 92)[2] Berlin, Nazi Germany[3]
Alma mater	University of Alaska University of Wisconsin–Madison
Known for	Mountain gorilla conservation
Awards	• National Geographic Lifetime Achievement Award[1] • Guggenheim Fellowship • World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal • International Cosmos Prize (1996) • Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement • National Book Award • Indianapolis Prize
Scientific career
Fields	Biologist, conservationist
Institutions	Panthera, Wildlife Conservation Society

Publications

Schaller has written more than fifteen books on African and Asian mammals, including Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator–Prey Relations, The Last Panda, and Tibet's Hidden Wilderness, Tibet the Wild, based on his own studies, and supported by long-term observations of species in their natural habitats. Schaller has also written hundreds of magazine articles, and dozens of books and scientific articles about tigers, jaguars, cheetahs and leopards, as well as wild sheep and goats, rhinoceroses, and flamingos. Over more than five decades, Schaller's field research has helped shape wildlife protection efforts around the world.^{[1][6][9][13]}

Awards and recognition

Schaller's conservation honors include National Geographic's Lifetime Achievement Award,^[1] a Guggenheim Fellowship,^[30] and the World Wildlife Fund's Gold Medal for: "Contributions to the understanding and conservation of endangered species".^[2] Schaller has also been awarded the International Cosmos Prize,^[11] the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement,^[31] and he was the first recipient of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Beebe Fellowship.^[30] Schaller's literary honors include the U.S. National Book Award in Science (for The Serengeti Lion in 1973).^[32] In 1988, Schaller received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.^[33] In September 2008, he received the Indianapolis Prize for his work in animal conservation.^[34]

In 2017, a newly discovered species of scorpion was named as Liocheles schalleri in his honor.^[35]

Personal life

His wife Kay majored in Anthropology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, where she and Schaller met. They married in 1957 and Kay assisted in fieldwork and edited and typed his manuscripts for nearly seven decades. Kay Schaller passed on March 7, 2023 at the age of 93.^[36]

The couple had two sons.

Bibliography

• Schaller, George B. (1963). The Mountain Gorilla – Ecology and Behavior. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-73635-8.
• ————— (2010) [1964]. The Year of the Gorilla. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-73647-1.
• ————— (1967). The Deer and the Tiger. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 370 pages ISBN 0-226-73633-4.
• —————; Selsam, Millicent E. (1969). The Tiger: Its Life in the Wild. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 9780065160703.
• ————— (1972). Serengeti: A Kingdom of Predators. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-47242-X.
• ————— (1972). Mountain Monarchs: Wild Sheep and Goats of the Himalaya. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 472 pages. ISBN 0-226-73641-5.
• ————— (1972). The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 494 pages. ISBN 0-226-73640-7.
• ————— (1973). Golden Shadows, Flying Hooves. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 287 pages. ISBN 0-394-47243-8.
• —————; Schaller, Kay (1977). Wonders of Lions. New York: Putnam Publishing Group Library. p. 304. ISBN 0-396-07409-X.
• ————— (1980). Stones of Silence: Journeys in the Himalaya. London: Andre Deutsch. p. 292 pages. ISBN 0-233-97215-3.
• —————; Jinchu, Hu; Wenshi, Pan; Jing, Zhu (1985). The Giant Pandas of Wolong. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-73643-1.
• ————— (1993). The Last Panda. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 312 pages. ISBN 0-226-73628-8.
• ————— (1997). Tibet's Hidden Wilderness: Wildlife and Nomads of the Chang Tang Reserve. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 168 pages. ISBN 0-8109-3893-6.
• ————— (1998). Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 383 pages. ISBN 0-226-73653-9.
• —————; Vrba, Elisabeth S., eds. (2000). Antelopes, Deer, and Relatives: Fossil Record, Behavioral Ecology, Systematics, and Conservation. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. p. 356 pages. ISBN 0-300-08142-1.
• ————— (2007). A Naturalist and Other Beasts: Tales From a Life in the Field. San Francisco, Calif: Sierra Club Books. p. 272 pages. ISBN 978-1-57805-129-8.
• ————— (2012). Tibet Wild: A Naturalist's Journeys on the Roof of the World. Washington, DC: Island Books. ISBN 978-1-61091-172-6.
• Schaller, George B. (2014). Deki: The Adventures of a Dog and a Boy in Tibet. Gurgaon: Hachette India. ISBN 9789350098479.
• Schaller, George B. (2020). Into Wild Mongolia. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300246179.