Archie Carr

{{Short description|American herpetologist, ecologist and conservationist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Archie Carr

| image =

| image_size =

| birth_date = June 16, 1909

| birth_place = Mobile, Alabama

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1987|5|21|1909|6|16}}

| death_place = Micanopy, Florida

| field = Herpetology
Conservation Biology
Ecology
Marine Biology

| work_institutions = University of Florida

| alma_mater = University of Florida

| known_for = World authority on sea turtles

| prizes = Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1952)

| spouse = Marjorie Harris Carr

}}

Archibald Fairly Carr Jr. (June 16, 1909 – May 21, 1987) was an American herpetologist, ecologist, and conservationist.{{Cite web |title=Archie Carr (June 16, 1909–May 21, 1987) |url=https://apps.lib.ua.edu/blogs/this-goodly-land/author/?AuthorID=178}} He was a Professor of Zoology at the University of Florida and a writer on science and nature. He brought attention to the world's declining sea turtle populations due to over-exploitation and habitat loss. Wildlife refuges in Florida and Costa Rica have been named in his honor.

Biography

Born in Mobile, Alabama, to a Presbyterian pastor,{{cite book |last1=Owen |first1=Thomas McAdory |title=History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography|volume= 3|date=1921 |publisher=The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company |location=Chicago |page=302 |url=https://archive.org/details/history-of-alabama-owen-v3/page/n271/mode/2up}} Carr grew up in Mobile, Fort Worth, Texas, and Savannah, Georgia. He studied Biology with specialization in zoology at the University of Florida (UF), eventually specializing in herpetology too. He further refined that interest to the study of turtles and eventually became one of the world's foremost authorities on sea turtles. He married Marjorie Harris Carr, a conservationist herself.{{Cite web |title=Archie F. Carr, Jr. Papers |url=https://findingaids.uflib.ufl.edu/repositories/2/resources/1124 |website=ufl.edu}}

While a student at UF, he became a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.{{cite book|title=The Seminole Yearbook|year=1932|publisher=University of Florida|location=Gainesville, FL|page=41}} From UF, he received bachelor's degree in 1932, M.S. in 1934, and Ph.D. in 1937.{{cite news|author=Brody, Jane E.|authorlink=Jane Brody|title=Archie Carr, zoologist, dies; devoted career to sea turtle|date=23 May 1987|newspaper=NY Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/23/obituaries/archie-carr-zoologist-dies-devoted-career-to-sea-turtle.html}}

He was a high school science teacher before becoming a college professor. He published numerous books and articles, including Ulendo: Travels of a Naturalist in and out of Africa, High Jungles and Low, So Excellent a Fishe (about his green turtles), The Windward Road and several Time-Life books such as The Everglades and The Reptiles. He also authored the Handbook of Turtles, and with Coleman Jett Goin, Guide to the Reptiles, Amphibians and Freshwater Fishes of Florida. While a serious scientific and nature writer, he also published a parody of scientific taxonomic keys – his A Subjective Key to the Fishes of Alachua County, Florida, affectionately known as the "Carr Key".

Carr became a bit of a legend at UF, and students vied with one another to take his Community Ecology course in which they were involved in several major and minor field trips around northern Florida and southern Georgia. Listening to Carr talk about the Sand Pine scrub near Ocala or his comments as he guided students through the Okefenokee Swamp in canoes was considered a great privilege.{{citation needed|date=May 2011}}

Carr was also known for his efforts in conservation, especially for sea turtles, helping convince Costa Rica to establish Tortuguero National Park in 1975. He was a co-founder of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, which helps to save and monitor sea turtles in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. He often joined his wife Marjorie Carr in conservation work, as she was a major advocate for conservation in her own right. In 1952 the National Academy of Sciences awarded Carr the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal.{{cite web |title=Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal |url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=February 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604022929/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy }}

Legacy

Founder and Scientific Director of Sea Turtle Conservancy (formerly Caribbean Conservation Corporation) from 1959 until his death in 1987.
The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, which covers the beaches from Melbourne Beach south to Wabasso Beach was set up in 1994 in honor of his efforts.
In 1994, the Dr. Archie Carr Wildlife Refuge was established in Costa Rica in his memory.
Carr's son, Archie Carr III, is a conservationist who coordinated Central American programs for the New York Zoological Society (now known as the Wildlife Conservation Society); Carr III was instrumental in establishing the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in Belize.
A book about Carr entitled The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles: Archie Carr and the Origins of Conservation was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press. This book was written by Frederick R. Davis, Assistant Professor of History at the Florida State University.
Carr's work is referenced in the 1985 romantic-drama film Turtle Diary.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has named its newest building after Archie and Marjorie Carr.
Carr is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of snake, Sibon carri.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Carr", p. 48).
In 1987 the Ecological Society of America awarded Carr the Eminent Ecologist Award.
World Sea Turtle Day is celebrated on June 16th, coinciding with Archie Carr's birthday.{{cite web | title=» June 16th is World Sea Turtle Day! | website=Sea Turtle Conservancy – Helping Sea Turtles Survive Since 1959 | date=9 June 2014 | url=https://conserveturtles.org/june-16th-is-world-sea-turtle-day/ | access-date=17 June 2024}}

Works

Carr, Archie (1952). Handbook of Turtles; the Turtles of the United States, Canada, and Baja California.{{cite journal | last1=Milne | first1=Lorus J. | last2=Milne | first2=Margery J. | title=Review of Handbook of Turtles: The Turtles of the United States, Canada, and Baja California by Archie Carr. Ithaca, N. Y.: Comstock Pub., Cornell Univ. Press, 1952. 542 pp. $7.50. | journal=Science | publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) | volume=116 | issue=3007 | date=1952-08-15 | issn=0036-8075 | doi=10.1126/science.116.3007.181.a | pages=181| s2cid=239822332 }} {{cite book|title=1995 pbk edition|isbn=0-801-48254-2 |last1=Carr |first1=Archie |year=1952 |publisher=Comstock Pub. Associates }}
Carr, Archie (1953). High Jungles and Low.{{cite journal|author=Lobeck, A. K.|authorlink=Armin K. Lobeck|title=Review of High Jungles and Low by Archie Carr|journal=Geographical Review|volume=45|issue=2|date=April 1955|pages=305–307|doi=10.2307/212252|jstor=212252}}
Carr, Archie, and Coleman J. Goin (1955). Guide to the Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes of Florida.
Carr, Archie (1956). The Windward Road, 1st edition.{{cite journal | last=Lynn | first=W. Gardner | title=Review of The Windward Road by Archie Carr. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956. Pp. xvi, 258. Index. $4.50.) | journal=The Americas | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=13 | issue=1 | year=1957 | issn=0003-1615 | doi=10.2307/979224 | pages=95–96| jstor=979224 | s2cid=146889122 }} [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/americas/article/abs/two-jamaicas-the-role-of-ideas-in-a-tropical-colony-18301865-by-philip-curtin-cambridge-harvard-university-press-1955-pp-xii-270-illus-475/25FE601CA992425D96418467FDEDB75C p. 96] {{cite book|title=1979 edition|isbn=0-8130-0639-2 |last1=Carr |first1=Archie |year=1979 |publisher=University Presses of Florida }}. {{cite book|title=2013 edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5LM4sYv9dsC|isbn=978-0307832115|last1=Carr|first1=Archie|date=2013-06-26| publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing }}
Carr, Archie (1963). The Reptiles (Series: LIFE Nature Library).
Carr, Archie (1964). Ulendo: Travels of a Naturalist in and out of Africa.{{cite web|title=Review of Ulendo: Travels of a Naturalist in and out of Africa by Archie Carr|website=Kirkus Reviews|date= June 15, 1964|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/archie-carr-4/ulendo-travels-of-a-naturalist-in-and-out-of-af-2/}}
Carr, Archie (1967, 1984). So Excellent a Fishe: A Natural History of Sea Turtles. ({{ISBN|0-292-77595-4}}).
Carr, Archie (1973). The Everglades. (Time-Life Book).
Carr, Archie (Marjorie Carr, editor) (1994). A Naturalist in Florida: A Celebration of Eden. ({{ISBN|0-300-05589-7}}).{{cite journal|author=Ellison, Aaron M.|authorlink=Aaron M. Ellison|title=Review of A Naturalist in Florida: A Celebration of Eden by Archie Carr; edited by Marjorie Harris Carr|journal=The Quarterly Review of Biology|volume=70|issue=1|date=March 1995|pages=62–63|doi=10.1086/418871}} {{cite book|title=1996 edition|postscript=; pbk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OPy3QhYVXmAC|isbn=978-0300068542|last1=Carr|first1=Archie|date=September 1996|publisher=Yale University Press }}

Academic genealogy

Archie Carr graduated with his PhD in 1938 from the University of Florida under J.S. Rogers. His academic ancestry passes from Rogers (PhD 1929 University of Illinois), through Stephen Alfred Forbes (PhD 1884 Indiana University) (the first Chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey and a founder of aquatic ecosystem science[http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu Illinois Natural History Survey]), the eminent evolutionary biologist and ecologist David Starr Jordan (PhD 1872 Cornell), to Louis Agassiz (PhD 1829 Munich, Germany) the eminent ichthyologist, geologist, and natural historian.

Carr advised and graduated 18 PhD students while faculty at the University of Florida: D.A. Belkin (1961), Karen A. Bjorndal (1979), D.K. Caldwell (1957), S.P. Christman (1975), M.J. Corn (1981), J.W. Crenshaw, Jr. (1955), D.C. Dietz (1979), D.W. Ehrenfeld (1966), D.E. Goodman (1971), E.V. Gourley (1969), H.F. Hirth (1962), C.G. Jackson (1964), J.F. Jackson (1972), A.B. Meylan (1984), J.A. Mortimer (1981), Robert H. Mount (1961), Peter C. Pritchard (1969), and Douglas A. Rossman (1962).Adler, Kraig, editor (2012). Contributions to the History of Herpetology. Volume 3. Vancouver, British Columbia: Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 564 pp. {{ISBN|9780916984823}}.

References

External links

[https://conserveturtles.org/ Sea Turtle Conservancy]