Spring 2004

Humans
The 300-pound gorillas of local ecosystems

Readers may be pleased to hear that they can easily spot the only primate in Chicago Wilderness. Just turn toward the mirror. That magnificent beast there before you (come on, admit it) is an example of the most powerful and dangerous species on the planet — the human being, Homo sapiens.

The human ranges in color between shades of white, yellow, red, and black. One of the largest mammals of this region, it lacks natural defenses such as claws or sharp teeth and relies mostly on intellect, bravado, guns, and enormous military budgets to defend itself. The species now has no natural predators locally, aside from muggers and lawyers.

The modern human's range is global, thanks to technology. Individuals migrate across the planet, and occasionally fling themselves into space. Once limited to moderately moist savannas in Africa, observes Paul Heltne, senior research scholar with the Center for Humans and Nature, humans now "carry around our savanna habitat in our clothing and shelters."

Heltne points out that humans share lots of behaviors with other primates. We are highly social, affiliative animals "with one or two individuals dominating local groups," he claims. "And we tend to expand territories and defend territories, mates, and children." The human is unique, however, in supporting its offspring so long after birth and continuing to live long after reproductive age, he says. There have been hypotheses that this characteristic leads to wisdom and good decision-making for the larger group. Let's hope so.

Sometimes, human behavior is just impossible to understand. Photo by James P. Rowan.

It certainly has led to our ability to innovate, which has in some ways exempted us from certain aspects of natural selection. With the help of a simple pair of eyeglasses, for instance, we no longer accidentally walk off cliffs or get mauled by saber-toothed cats we thought were our girlfriend. In this way, our species carries on certain genetic variations that our ancestors would have left behind.

Speaking of love, the human species also has proven repeatedly that it is excellent at mating — a fact that has gotten us in some trouble, as our parents said it would. Even as global populations soar past six billion, taxing the land as never before, we keep right on reproducing. Scientists are working through the night to find out why.

Another unique behavior of modern humans is that we live in concentrated cities.  In part because of this concentration, modernized human societies have developed complex social systems that encourage individuals to specialize on only one narrowly defined function, such as hitting little white balls around (Tiger Woods) or appearing in tabloids (Paris Hilton). As a result of specialization, says Heltne, "It's quite likely that an enormous percentage of citizens have no idea of what happens between the lake and the faucet. Where our food comes from is quite a mystery, as well as where it goes when we flush the toilet. Because we never have to get our hands in the soil, we are masked from basic creatures. We develop a disregard for processes of soils and forest, and for the people who produce food for us and pick up our garbage."

Perhaps this is our species' most defining ecological characteristic today — the way we have distanced ourselves from the systems that support us. The omnivorous humans of Chicago Wilderness may reside at the southern edge of Lake Michigan, but we get very little of our food from the land around us. Instead, we eat a cow from Nebraska, artichokes from California, and bumpy little fruits from islands in the Pacific.

We human beings, prowling our well-worn concrete trails, still interact with nature in important ways--we fish, we care for domesticated pets and plants, we observe birds, listen for frogs, and help restore natural areas. But without pulling a livelihood from where we live, our species has become an ecological stranger in its own land.

— Don Parker