Resumen de If you go down to the woods today...
Entering the woods is like diving into a dappled sea of green. The rustle of leaves and sounds of birds fill the air, that croaking sound is a raven and the cat-like mewling, a buzzard, says ecologist Ben Sheldon. Blackcaps, wrens and robins are also making themselves heard, but they've come to Wytham woods near Oxford UK, to visit some other birds. This 4-sq-km tract of classic English woodland was bequeathed to the University of Oxford in 1943 by a wealthy couple after the death of their beloved daughter, on the condition that it be used for teaching and research. Four years later, biologist David Lack started a project that continues today. One of the pioneers of evolutionary ecology, he was looking for a population of wild animals that he could use to measure some basic parameters, such as life span and population size. Lack died in 1973 but his work goes on: the Wytham Tits Project is the longest-running field study of birds anywhere in the world. Here, O'Neill discusses how Sheldon, the latest in a line of Oxford biologist to oversee the project, has keep it running continuously for nearly 70 years.
