This is damn interesting.

Headphones recommend it.

Charles Waterton was born in Yorkshire, England in 1782,

to an aristocratic Catholic family whose ancestors included members of several royal families.

The life of an idle nobleman didn't appeal to him, however.

From a young age he displayed a passion for studying and interacting with animals in a very hands-on way.

He was so much of a bird brain that teachers complained of his vast proficiency in the art of finding birds' nests,

distracting him from his studies.

Like his teachers, Waterton's classmates notice his fondness for being amongst animals.

He was the one called upon when the boys wanted someone to tame an angry goose or to ride

a cow for their entertainment.

Waterson's youthful interest in trapping the animals around him evolved into a specialist desire

to understand less common animals.

This being the Victorian era, and Waterton having time and money to devote to his preoccupations,

his obsessions prompted amusement in the readers of his prolific writings rather than consternation.

For instance, he once described a dissection of a vulture's nose as beautiful,

and he was an expert on how a variety of tropical animals tasted,

from the howler monkey to the toucan.

The former apparently is not dissimilar to goat, while the latter should be boiled for best results. This type of contradiction, being moved by animals, yet also scientifically dedicated to studying

them by killing and preserving them in scientifically novel ways, would be a theme throughout

Waterton's life. The man clearly had complex feelings about his relationship with animals.

Perhaps the most significant of these feelings was the desire to transcend the divisions within the animal kingdom.

...