Anne Innis Dagg - Smitten by Giraffe: My Life as a Citizen Scientist

SMITTEN
BY GIRAFFE

Footprints Series

Jane Errington, Editor

The life stories of individual women and men who were participants in interesting events help nuance larger historical narratives, at times reinforcing those narratives, at other times contradicting them. The Footprints series introduces extraordinary Canadians, past and present, who have led fascinating and important lives at home and throughout the world.

The series includes primarily original manuscripts but may consider the English-language translation of works that have already appeared in another language. The editor of the series welcomes inquiries from authors. If you are in the process of completing a manuscript that you think might fit into the series, please contact her, care of McGill-Queens University Press, 1010 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 1720, Montreal, QC H3A 2R7.

1 Blatant Injustice:

The Story of a Jewish Refugee from Nazi Germany Imprisoned in Britain and Canada during World War II

Walter W. Igersheimer

Edited and with a foreword by Ian Darragh

2 Against the Current

Memoirs

Boris Ragula

3 Margaret Macdonald

Imperial Daughter

Susan Mann

4 My Life at the Bar and Beyond

Alex K. Paterson

5 Red Travellers

Jeanne Corbin and Her Comrades

Andre Lvesque

6 The Teeth of Time

Remembering Pierre Elliott Trudeau

Ramsay Cook

7 The Greater Glory

Thirty-seven Years with the Jesuits

Stephen Casey

8 Doctor to the North

Thirty Years Treating Heart Disease among the Inuit

John H. Burgess

9 Dal and Rice

Wendy M. Davis

10 In the Eye of the Wind

A Travel Memoir of Prewar Japan

Ron Baenninger and Martin Baenninger

11 Im from Bouctouche, Me

Roots Matter

Donald J. Savoie

12 Alice Street

A Memoir

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13 Crises and Compassion

From Russia to the Golden Gate

John M. Letiche

14 In the Eye of the China Storm

A Life Between East and West

Paul T.K. Lin with Eileen Chen Lin

15 Georges and Pauline Vanier

Portrait of a Couple

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16 Blitzkrieg and Jitterbugs

College Life in Wartime, 19391942

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17 Harrison McCain

Single-Minded Purpose

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18 Discovering Confederation

A Canadians Story

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19 Expect Miracles

Recollections of a Lucky Life

David M. Culver with Alan Freeman

20 Building Bridges

Victor C. Goldbloom

21 Call Me Giambattista

A Personal and Political Journey

John Ciaccia

22 Smitten by Giraffe

My Life as a Citizen Scientist

Anne Innis Dagg

SMITTEN
BY GIRAFFE

My Life as a Citizen Scientist

ANNE INNIS DAGG

McGill-Queens University Press

Montreal & Kingston London Chicago

Anne Innis Dagg 2016

ISBN 978-0-7735-4799-5 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-7735-9974-1 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-0-7735-9975-8 (ePUB)

Legal deposit third quarter 2016

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

McGill-Queens University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Dagg, Anne Innis, 1933, author

Smitten by giraffe : my life as a citizen scientist / Anne Innis Dagg.

(Footprints series ; 22)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-7735-4799-5 (cloth).ISBN 978-0-7735-9974-1 (ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9975-8 (ePUB)

1. Dagg, Anne Innis, 1933. 2. Women zoologistsCanadaBiography. 3. Women scientistsCanadaBiography. 4. Women college teachersCanadaBiography. 5. Women in higher educationCanada. 6. Sexism in higher educationCanada. 7. GiraffeAfrica. I. Title. II. Series: Footprints series ; 22

QL31.D34A3 2016 590.92 C2016-903705-3 C2016-903706-1

In memory of Tigger, Sport,
Ararat, Mouse,
Silver, Tiger, Amadeus, and Creepie

Contents

Preface

I was three when I saw my first giraffe. It immediately became my favourite animal and I wanted to learn everything about it. When I grew older, I realized that this goal meant that I should become a zoologist. At the time zoologists usually worked at universities, so my dream became not only to attend university but to become a university professor like my father and brother. Then I could study the behaviour of giraffe and other animals for the rest of my life!

I graduated in zoology in 1955 from the University of Toronto, earning a gold medal in the process, and went to study giraffe in Africa as planned. On my return, after years of post-graduate work, including successfully teaching courses in zoology at three different universities, I earned my PhD. All I needed to fulfill my dream of a life of teaching and doing research was to become a professor with tenure. What I had not counted on, however, was that at the time universities were loath to hire women, no matter how experienced, except in part-time or short-term positions. One dean told me he would never give tenure to a married woman because she had a man to support her. Case closed.

It seemed obvious to me that this sexist attitude was ridiculous and must be changed. So my life became one not only of continuing to do research, usually at my own expense, but of fighting university systems that discriminated against academic women. And then, realizing that women suffered because of their gender in most other fields, I began to work for them too. Publishers should publish excellent books no matter the gender of the author. Artists should be judged by their art, not their sex. Homosexuality was not unnatural, since, as I had proved, it was common in many animal species. This book describes what it was like to spend my life learning about the behaviour of giraffe and other animals and fighting discrimination.

For most of my adult life I have been a citizen scientist. I define the citizen scientist as a person who has been academically trained in science or who understands scientific principles and carries out research and other enterprises in an accepted scientific fashion. They are citizens because their work is not backed by a university or government or think-tank, nor paid for by a commercial company. And there are millions of us: anyone who decides to set up a group to stop mining in the Canadian north, or organizes bird-watchers to report their sightings so measures can be enacted to help disappearing species, or coordinates individuals in developed countries to help people in poor countries earn money through microloans. With each such enterprise, data have to be collected to indicate the need for action, volunteers need to be encouraged and kept in the loop about what is going on, and the results of the activity have to be analyzed, detailing success or failure, so that planning for the future can begin.