Valerius Geist
| Valerius (Val) Geist | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 2, 1938 Nikolajew, Ukraine, USSR |
| Residence | Vancouver Island, B.C. |
| Fields | biology, behavior, and social dynamics of large North American mammals |
| Institutions | University of Calgary |
| Alma mater | |
| Doctoral advisor | Ian McTaggart-Cowan |
| Other academic advisors | Konrad Lorenz |
Valerius (Val) Geist (Russian: Валерюс (Вал) Гаист) is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary. He is a specialist on the biology, behavior, and social dynamics of North American large mammals (elk, moose, bighorn sheep and other wild ungulates).
He was born on February 2, 1938 in Nikolajew, Ukraine, USSR and raised in Germany and Austria. He now resides on Vancouver Island, B.C. He holds an honours BSc in zoology (1960), and a Ph.D of zoology in ethology (1967), both from the University of British Columbia. He completed his postdoctoral studies in Seewiesen, Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology (‘’Max-Planck Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie’’) (1967-1968), under Konrad Lorenz. His doctoral thesis was On the behaviour and evolution of American mountain sheep
Since 1977, he has taught at the University of Calgary, where he is a founding member and first Program Director of Environmental Science in the Faculty of Environmental Design.
His theories of the possible lifestyle and mysterious disappearance of Neanderthal Man are gradually gaining widespread coverage, if not yet acceptance. He links the extinction of the Neanderthal to the disappearance at the end of the last ice age of large, long haired mammals, which represented his source of both nutrition and hides, rather than to conquest by Cro-Magnon man. National Geographic magazine has echoed his suggestion that Neanderthals lacked projectile weapons and that studies on Neanderthal skeletons have indicated injuries most closely resembling those of modern rodeo riders [citation needed], which Geist explains as the possible result of the Neanderthal hunting technique of leaping on large mammals, clinging to them and then killing them from above or by spear thrusts from small hunting parties. He has also pointed to evidence of Neanderthal cannibalism, including children.
He is a champion of ethical hunting and a wildlife artist.
He has acted as an expert witness in many areas, including animal behavior, environmental policy, native treaties, wildlife law enforcement and policy, and wildlife/vehicle collisions cases in the United States and Canada. He has testified on wildlife conservation policy in court, before Senate of the State of Montana and before the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, and Sustainable Development in Ottawa.
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