Part 2
After completing his doctorate at Berkley in 1935, Ian returned to British Columbia to work as a biologist at the Provincial Museum in Victoria, then directed by Francis Kermode. He left the Museum in 1940 for an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, in Vancouver.
Ian appeared on the university scene at a most fortuitous time. The great graduate schools in the United States had discovered "ecology", and the graduates, of whom Ian was one, were making waves. The "field" sciences were in ferment. Ian's first publication came in 1930, "The Mammals of Point Grey"- a modest introduction to the 300 titles and several thousand pages of contributions to knowledge that followed in the subsequent 70 years.
In 1943, Ian was contracted by Parks Canada to undertake the first extensive field studies of the fauna of the Rocky Mountain Parks of Canada. He was a natural choice for the work because, through his 3-month stint in the parks with Mack Laing 13 years earlier, he was immediately at home in the landscape. His first guide was the legendary mountain man, James "Jimmy" Simpson, who provided safe passage to the most remote areas of the Rockies.
Promoted to Professor of Zoology in 1945, he served as head of the department from 1953 to 1964 where he continued to develop and teach courses in vertebrate zoology. The vertebrate zoology program at UBC was established around the personal specimen collections belonging to Ian and Kenneth Racey. It was the first academic program in Canada to study the biological basis of wildlife conservation. As well, Cowan was largely responsible for convincing Canadian governments to recruit trained wildlife biologists to staff their wildlife management agencies.
Ian became Dean of Graduate Studies at UBC in 1964. Even with expanded responsibilities, he continued to teach a course in wildlife biology, supervise directed studies and guide the research of zoology doctoral candidates. The 60s and early 70s were exciting times for students in the field sciences at UBC. In addition to Cowan and Mary Taylor in the zoology department, his students often drew on the vast knowledge and guidance of top notch leaders in other disciplines such as Bert Brink in plant science, A. J. Wood in animal science, D. J. Laird in soil science, Vladimir Krajina and Kay Beamish in botany, Bill Matthews in geology, a young Fred Bunnell in forestry/wildlife and Peter Larkin and Bill Hoar in fisheries.
In all, Ian supervised the research of some 100 graduate students and was an invaluable member of advisory committees on countless other graduate projects. Perhaps Carl Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy said it best -"a professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discoverers are among them, as comets amongst the stars."
Some of his graduate students were indeed the new "comets" in the wildlife field. Names like Maurice Hornocker (cougar), Val Geist (Stone's sheep) and C.S Holling (predation) quickly became associated with excellence in wildlife science. It is difficult to imagine any areas of terrestrial vertebrate zoology and wildlife conservation that have not been influenced by Ian's work. Long time UBC colleague Bert Brink agrees: "More than any others, Ian and his students have fostered knowledge of the fauna of the land and sea. I would stand by this choice from the multitude of his accomplishments as the most far reaching and significant: his field work is outstanding and global."
Few know of the pivotal role that Ian played in the elimination of the bounty system in Canada. Beginning in the 1920s, the provinces had systems to reward those who would rid the land of "undesirable" animals or so-called vermin. Some rewards involved cash-some gun cartridges, and the systems were costly, inefficient and open to widespread abuse. Wolves, cougars, coyotes, Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, crows, jays and magpies were among the wildlife on the bounty lists. Together with J.R Dymond, a top Canadian fisheries biologist at the University of Toronto, and armed with good data from both Canada and the United States, they lectured on the folly of the bounty system to hundreds of audiences over nearly 10 years. In the end, they prevailed, obtaining strong support from the hunting community. Ian would later recall this victory as "an important step in trying to put scientific management of wildlife into play." By 1973, all Canadian jurisdictions but the Northwest Territories had eliminated the bounty system on wildlife.
Cowan's interests in large mammals and ecology led him to extensive field studies in the Canadian Arctic, the Rocky Mountain National Parks, western Mexico, Scotland, Finland, Africa, several Pacific Islands and throughout British Columbia. He was highly sought after as an advisor on a variety of nature and educational issues. In all, his 36 years of conservation studies took him to 6 continents and resulted in more than 260 publications, 12 teaching films and 110 television programs.
Ian is recognized as a pioneer in the use of television as a medium to provide information to educate the public about conservation and the wonders of the natural world. The Fur and Feathers series and The Living Sea series, both produced by the CBC, went to air live. Only The Web of Life series, also a CBC production, was taped. In the popular Fur and Feathers series of 52 episodes in 1955-56, the approach was to confront a youngster with a natural history object that had never been seen before, and provide facts by responding to the child's questions. The award-winning Web of Life was aired during 1960-63 and used footage shot in B.C., Uganda, southern United States, the Arctic, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
IAN MCTAGGART-COWAN
