Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
and the wood had a deliciously wild, unmanaged feeling that made me feel deeply re-
laxed and at home in its complex vegetation and its dark, overgrown tracks crossed with
fallen trees and deep swampy puddles.
The work was hard. Amongst other things, I had to carry out a systematic, quant-
itative survey of the wood's vegetation in order to study muntjac habitat preferences.
This work took two summers and one winter, laying out hundreds of temporary 5-metre
square plots with bamboo poles and string, and then estimating by eye the cover of vari-
ous species of herbs and shrubs within them. Trees had to be measured using a different,
timeconsuming technique. The concentration needed to extract these numbers from the
living world was taxing and exhausting, and it seemed unnatural. After working on two
or three plots, needing to rest my tired mind, I would lean back against a tree looking up
at the sky through the wonderful wild mesh of branches, listening to the wood living its
life as a vast breathing being. I became part of this being, with its swaying branches, its
crisscrossing birdsongs, and its invisible muntjac carrying on with their strange lives all
around me.
During these meditative moments there was a profoundly healing sense of Rushbeds
Wood as an integrated living intelligence, a sense that expanded beyond the wood itself
to include the living qualities of a wider world of the atmosphere, the oceans and the
whole body of the turning world. Rushbeds Wood in these moments seemed to be
quite clearly and obviously alive, to have its unique personality and communicative
power. These periods of communion were intensely joyful and relaxing, and contrasted
markedly with the stressful effort to reduce the wood to quantitative measurements in
my multiplying field notebooks. I noticed with interest that the joyful sense of union
would fade into the background of my consciousness as soon as data collection began.
Gathering numbers was mind-numbing; being and breathing with Rushbeds Wood was
liberating.
I had similar experiences whilst working at Whipsnade Zoo, where muntjac were
free to wander almost anywhere within the spacious, parklike grounds. Here was a place
where I could observe muntjac without the intervention of the dense, thickety vegeta-
tion of Rushbeds Wood, which afforded only fleeting glimpses of the muntjac as they
crossed a clearing at dusk or dawn. The open, wooded lawns at Whipsnade made it easy
to watch the little deer, many of whom I came to know as individuals. Once again, my
brief was to collect numbers, this time about their movements and behaviour, so I would
record on data sheets what the deer did and where they were every four minutes, for
hours on end.
During my rest periods I would simply sit among the muntjac without collecting data
at all. I particularly loved finding an animal that was chewing its cud. Sitting at a re-
spectful distance, I would feel the intense, tranquil pleasure that seemed to emanate from
