Search Results - Watson , Lyall

Lyall Watson

| birth_place = Johannesburg, Union of South Africa | death_date = | death_place = Gympie, Queensland, Australia | resting_place = | occupation = Zoologist, anthropologist, conservationist, writer | language = | nationality = South African | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = Rondebosch Boys' High School; BSc (Hons) University of the Witwatersrand and University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal}; PhD Westfield College, now merged with Queen Mary University of London | period = | genre = | subject = Completed his BSc (Hons) in the Department of Zoology at the University of Natal, awarded in 1960. PhD in ethology (the study of animal behaviour) awarded by London University in 1964, supervisor Desmond Morris | movement = | notableworks = Supernature, The Romeo Error, Gifts of Unknown Things, Lifetide, Lightning Bird, Elephantoms | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | module = | website = | portaldisp = }} Lyall Watson (12 April 1939 – 25 June 2008) was a South African botanist, zoologist, biologist, anthropologist, ethologist, and author of many books, among the most popular of which is the best seller ''Supernature''. Lyall Watson tried to make sense of natural and supernatural phenomena in biological terms. He is credited with coining the "hundredth monkey" effect in his 1979 book, ''Lifetide''; later, in ''The Whole Earth Review'', he conceded this was "a metaphor of my own making".

Born in Johannesburg in South Africa, full name Malcolm Lyall-Watson, he had an early fascination for nature in the surrounding bush and learned much from a Zulu minder, who taught him bushcraft and native African animism from an early age. Watson attended boarding school at Rondebosch Boys' High School in Cape Town from the age of ten, completing his studies in 1955. He enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand at the age of 16 where, by the time he was 20, he had earned degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and from the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal).

At the University of the Witwatersrand he had studied under Raymond Dart, leading on to postgraduate anthropological studies in Germany and the Netherlands. He completed a doctorate in ethology at the University of London, under Desmond Morris. He also worked at the BBC writing and producing nature documentaries, and for many years he spent seasons as an expedition leader and resident biologist onboard the ''MS Lindblad Explorer'', leading to the publication of a textbook for the general reader on ''Whales of the World'' in 1981. He was involved in setting up the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and in 1977 was appointed as the Seychelles Commissioner for Whales.

Watson wrote twenty-four books in all, during a writing career which spanned four decades. Provided by Wikipedia