Natural History 2.0: The Power of Direct Experience in Understanding, Connecting With, and Conserving Nature in the Tech Age

Abstract Science that supports biodiversity conservation has become increasingly sophisticated in technical and quantitative terms. These developments are good for biodiversity science and scientists, and represent “progress.” But they tend to separate researchers from their actual study subjects: living beings in the wild. It's not enough for us to be modelers, mappers, and programmers; we have to be naturalists with our boots in the mud, our faces in the water, watching, and being present to truly understand what animals are really doing, and how their world is affecting them. In an encouraging trend, we're seeing a rebirth of old-fashioned natural history using tools of today, such as drones, underwater video footage of animal behavior, and citizen science data collection. These old-school approaches using contemporary tools—a “Natural History 2.0”—inspire imagination and rely on direct observations and human inference to help us better understand the natural world and our place in it.