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Wednesday, February 16, 1933
Daily Nebraskan
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Staff photo by John Zoi
Paul Johnsqard works on a sketch of a waterfowl in his Manter Hall office.
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Wednesday, Feb. 16 8:00 p.m.
Nebraska Union
Find out more about the Spring Break Trip
Everyone Welcome
is
By Linda Uekhus
An exhibit of art, books, original manu
scripts and wood sculpture by UNL profes
sor, Paul Johnsgard. is on display at Ben
nett Martin Public Library at 14th and N
streets. The exhibit, in the Heritage Room,
will be displayed until May 31 .
Johnsgard, a professor in the School of
Life Sciences, is an artist and published au
thor. Many of the books he has authored
and illustrated are about birds and their be
havior. Johnsgard came to UNL 21 years ago
with zoology and wildlife management de
grees fromNorth Dakota State University,
Washington State University and Cornell
University. UNL was his first teaching posi
tion after he completed a two-year fellow
ship at England's Bristol University. At
Bristol, he completed a study of the behav
ior of all the waterfowl species of the
world. Consequently, this research became
the basis for his first book, "A Handbook
of Waterfowl Behavior."
After the success of the first book,
Johnsgard said he undertook several writ
ing projects, working on as many as eight
projects at a time. He has published 15
books including "Song of the North
Wind," "Hummingbirds in North America"
and recently, "Dragons and Unicorns"
which was the first book he coiuthored.
His co-author was his daughter, Karin,
a student at Nebraska Wesleyan University.
He said he expects to have four new books
out within the year.
"Most of my books are about the behav
ior and ecology of live animals, especially
birds and mammals," he said.
Johnsgard said he spends much of his
summers traveling around America and the
world doing research for his books. He also
researches at libraries and museums includ
ing those at Yale and at Oxford in England.
Johnsgard said his research focuses on get
ting data on distribution and on the speci
mens themselves.
He said when he is working on a book,
he likes to be in total command: all the
writing, drawings and photographs are his
own.
Although the book market is an impor
tant consideration, when choosing the sub
ject for a book, Johnsgard said his own in
terest in the subject is also a deciding fac
tor. He said he is more interested in study
ing the less known behavior aspects of a
certain bird species and he prefers to study
larger birds because they are easier to ob
serve. However, of the estimated 8,600
bird species in the world, Johnsgard esti
mates that he has looked at only a few
hundred species- so doesn't plan on run
ning out of future "projects." He also said
he probably will surpass his projected goal
of 25 published books, because there are so
many bird species he finds particularly in
teresting. "Being an author has been a very re
warding experience," he said. "It is the ob
ligation of the scientist to do useful re
search." He said he measures his books' success
in terms of his satisfaction with the work
and not in the number of book sales.
Johnsgard said he also enjoys line draw
ing, wood sculpture and photography.
These other interests have little to do with
his research and they are mainly recre
ational activities or for self-expression, he
said. Yet many of the drawings, sculptures
and photographs are of birds or other ani
mals, he said, and many of the drawings
and photographs are published as part of a
book.
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