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The Story Collider

Brian Fisher: Living With The Pygmies

The Story Collider

Story Collider, Inc.

Arts, Science, Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Performing Arts

4.4824 Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2014

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Alone in the African rainforest and on the brink of death, entomologist Brian Fisher finds help from an unexpected source. Dr. Brian Fisher is a modern day explorer who has devoted his life to the study and conservation of ants and biodiversity around the world. His research sends him through the last remote rainforests and deserts of Madagascar and Africa in search of ants. By documenting the species diversity and distribution of this "invisible majority," Dr. Fisher is helping to establish conservation priorities for Madagascar, identifying areas that should be set aside to protect the highest number of species. Along the way, he has discovered hundreds of new species of ants. He created the annual Ant Course in 2001, AntWeb in 2002, and the Madagascar Biodiversity Center in 2004. Every year, Dr. Fisher trains dozens of international graduate students in the taxonomy and natural history of ants, providing them with skills to use ants as an important indicator of biodiversity across the globe. He is currently Curator of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences and adjunct professor of biology at both the University of California at Berkeley and at San Francisco State University. He has appeared in a number of BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic films and has been profiled in Newsweek and Discover magazine.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

A science story, huh?

0:04.0

Is NYU scientist the...

0:06.0

It felt...

0:07.0

It was so...

0:09.0

And I just thought, well...

0:10.0

It was that golden moment.

0:13.0

Because science was on my side.

0:15.0

Hey, everyone. I'm Ben Lilly, and welcome to The Story Collider, where we bring you true personal stories about science.

0:30.0

A quick note, we have live shows coming up November 26th in London, December 3rd in New York, and December 9th in Boston.

0:36.7

Storycollider.org for more details.

0:39.3

This week's stories from Brian Fisher.

0:41.2

The story was recorded in October 2014

0:43.2

at the Rikshaw stop in San Francisco, California

0:46.0

as part of the ninth and last pill.

1:04.0

Any of those pills could have saved me.

1:07.6

I had waited too long to realize I was suffering from a severe case of malaria.

1:14.6

All this enthusiasm I had for the rainforest to be in Africa for the first time, seeing the elephants, the guerrillas, the chimps, the Sittitungas, had left.

1:29.3

Now I felt alone. I had to do something.

1:32.3

But with malaria, there's this fog that comes.

1:35.3

It keeps you from thinking.

1:37.3

I knew I had to do something quick.

1:39.3

My only hope was to get out, to get to the closest people.

...

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