Dr. Seuss: community ecologist

Submitted by drupaladmin on 16 June 2011.

Probably a lot of you already know about this (I first saw it quoted in an old paper of Simon Levin's), but for those of you who don't, the following passage is from Dr. Seuss' On Beyond Zebra:

And NUH is the letter I use to spell Nutches

Who live in small caves, known as Niches, for hutches.

These Nutches have troubles, the biggest of which is

The fact there are many more Nutches than Niches.

Each Nutch in a Nich knows that some other Nutch

Would like to move into his Nich very much.

So each Nutch in a Nich has to watch that small Nich

Or Nutches who haven't got Niches will snitch.

 

Dr. Seuss: community ecologist.

Say what you like about niche theory, but it generates better verse than neutral theory.

Just for fun