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47-869: Edward James Stafford (born 26 December 1975) is an English explorer and survivalist . He holds the Guinness World Record for being the first human ever to walk the length of the Amazon River . Stafford now hosts shows on the Discovery Channel and Channel Four . Ed Stafford was born in Peterborough , Cambridgeshire , England and raised in Leicestershire . He was adopted as a baby by Barbara and Jeremiah Stafford, who were both solicitors in Leicestershire. He

94-643: A boy. On 26 August 2020, Stafford's wife gave birth to twin girls. On 3 April 2024, Bingham gave birth to their fourth child, a girl. In April 2023 Stafford, Bingham and their children moved to Costa Rica . In August 2009 Stafford started writing a biweekly blog for the Prince's Rainforests Project . Natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms , including animals , fungi , and plants , in their natural environment , leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history

141-736: A ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 Guinness World Records recognised Stafford's achievement and he appears in the 2012 Guinness Book of Records . Also in 2011, Stafford was awarded the Mungo Park Medal by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society . He was not presented the award until 2014 at an event in Perth, Scotland. Commissioned by Discovery Communications , in August 2012 Stafford filmed

188-476: A naturalist, studies the world by observing plants and animals directly. Because organisms are functionally inseparable from the environment in which they live and because their structure and function cannot be adequately interpreted without knowing some of their evolutionary history, the study of natural history embraces the study of fossils as well as physiographic and other aspects of the physical environment". A common thread in many definitions of natural history

235-556: A part of science proper. In Victorian Scotland, the study of natural history was believed to contribute to good mental health. Particularly in Britain and the United States, this grew into specialist hobbies such as the study of birds , butterflies, seashells ( malacology / conchology ), beetles, and wildflowers; meanwhile, scientists tried to define a unified discipline of biology (though with only partial success, at least until

282-513: A search for his biological parents, whom he managed to track with the help of his sister, Janie. He explained, "There had always been this background intrigue. I looked for my birth family, not because I needed new parents in my life, but because it's just inherent to want to know." From his biological family, he has two younger brothers. On 3 September 2016, Stafford married fellow explorer, Laura Bingham in Leicestershire. On 6 June 2017 Stafford announced via Twitter that Bingham had given birth to

329-589: A three-part special for Discovery Channel where he was dropped on the uninhabited tropical island of Olorua ( 18°36′19″S 178°45′15″W  /  18.60528°S 178.75417°W  / -18.60528; -178.75417 ) in the Pacific for 60 days with no food or equipment to help him survive. "Ed Stafford: Naked and Marooned" was aired on Discovery Channel in the UK in March 2013 and "Naked Castaway" (US version) aired in

376-470: A type of observation and a subject of study, it can also be defined as a body of knowledge, and as a craft or a practice, in which the emphasis is placed more on the observer than on the observed. Definitions from biologists often focus on the scientific study of individual organisms in their environment, as seen in this definition by Marston Bates: "Natural history is the study of animals and Plants—of organisms. ... I like to think, then, of natural history as

423-502: A warm, tropical climate. Trees such as coconut , mango , lemon , grow on the island. Due to heavy marine pollution , its shores are littered with plastic bottles and other junk. The wildlife on and around the island includes crabs , sharks , and lizards such as the gecko . There is also a small group of goats on the island, left by the people of the Komo clan of the largest neighbouring Island. The goats maintain their population on

470-607: Is a cross-discipline umbrella of many specialty sciences; e.g., geobiology has a strong multidisciplinary nature. The meaning of the English term "natural history" (a calque of the Latin historia naturalis ) has narrowed progressively with time, while, by contrast, the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also History below). In antiquity , "natural history" covered essentially anything connected with nature , or used materials drawn from nature, such as Pliny

517-460: Is also echoed by H.W. Greene and J.B. Losos: "Natural history focuses on where organisms are and what they do in their environment, including interactions with other organisms. It encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do". Some definitions go further, focusing on direct observation of organisms in their environments, both past and present, such as this one by G.A. Bartholomew: "A student of natural history, or

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564-411: Is called a naturalist or natural historian . Natural history encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it. It involves the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms, so while it dates from studies in the ancient Greco-Roman world and the mediaeval Arabic world , through to European Renaissance naturalists working in near isolation, today's natural history

611-399: Is the inclusion of a descriptive component, as seen in a recent definition by H.W. Greene: "Descriptive ecology and ethology". Several authors have argued for a more expansive view of natural history, including S. Herman, who defines the field as "the scientific study of plants and animals in their natural environments. It is concerned with levels of organization from the individual organism to

658-550: The American Society of Naturalists and Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists . Professional societies have recognized the importance of natural history and have initiated new sections in their journals specifically for natural history observations to support the discipline. These include "Natural History Field Notes" of Biotropica , "The Scientific Naturalist" of Ecology , "From the Field" of Waterbirds , and

705-477: The Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits. Modern definitions of natural history come from a variety of fields and sources, and many of the modern definitions emphasize a particular aspect of the field, creating a plurality of definitions with a number of common themes among them. For example, while natural history is most often defined as

752-486: The Natural History Society of Northumbria founded in 1829, London Natural History Society (1858), Birmingham Natural History Society (1859), British Entomological and Natural History Society founded in 1872, Glasgow Natural History Society, Manchester Microscopical and Natural History Society established in 1880, Whitby Naturalists' Club founded in 1913, Scarborough Field Naturalists' Society and

799-465: The Renaissance , and quickly became a third branch of academic knowledge, itself divided into descriptive natural history and natural philosophy , the analytical study of nature. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry , while natural history included the biological and geological sciences. The two were strongly associated. During the heyday of

846-472: The Renaissance , making it one of the longest-lasting of all natural history books. From the ancient Greeks until the work of Carl Linnaeus and other 18th-century naturalists, a major concept of natural history was the scala naturae or Great Chain of Being , an arrangement of minerals, vegetables, more primitive forms of animals, and more complex life forms on a linear scale of supposedly increasing perfection, culminating in our species. Natural history

893-528: The gentleman scientists , many people contributed to both fields, and early papers in both were commonly read at professional science society meetings such as the Royal Society and the French Academy of Sciences —both founded during the 17th century. Natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus' aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly,

940-642: The modern evolutionary synthesis ). Still, the traditions of natural history continue to play a part in the study of biology, especially ecology (the study of natural systems involving living organisms and the inorganic components of the Earth's biosphere that support them), ethology (the scientific study of animal behavior), and evolutionary biology (the study of the relationships between life forms over very long periods of time), and re-emerges today as integrative organismal biology. Amateur collectors and natural history entrepreneurs played an important role in building

987-564: The "Natural History Miscellany section" of the American Naturalist . Natural history observations have contributed to scientific questioning and theory formation. In recent times such observations contribute to how conservation priorities are determined. Mental health benefits can ensue, as well, from regular and active observation of chosen components of nature, and these reach beyond the benefits derived from passively walking through natural areas. Olorua The island has

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1034-610: The 2011 TV series Walking the Amazon on Channel 5 . Stafford's expedition began with a friend, Luke Collyer , on 2 April 2008, on the southern coast of Peru. Collyer left after three months, and Stafford completed the journey with his guide, Gadiel “Cho” Sánchez Rivera . He undertook the attempt for several charities. Stafford ran out of money halfway through his hike and had to rely on making YouTube videos featuring PayPal links asking viewers for money. He later described this as " crowdfunding before it had even been invented". He

1081-477: The Discovery Channel UK and its international subsidiaries in the latter part of 2015. The series Ed Stafford: Left For Dead , another survival show, premiered in the autumn of 2017. A survival show Ed Stafford: First Man Out with a competition format began production in 2018, and premiered in early 2019. In the show, Stafford meets one other survival expert each week in a different part of

1128-537: The Elder 's encyclopedia of this title , published c.  77 to 79 AD , which covers astronomy , geography , humans and their technology , medicine , and superstition , as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two main divisions: the humanities (primarily what is now known as classics ) and divinity , with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. The study of nature revived in

1175-670: The Natural History Institute (Prescott, Arizona): Natural history – a practice of intentional focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy – is the oldest continuous human endeavor. In the evolutionary past of our species, the practice of natural history was essential for our survival, imparting critical information on habits and chronologies of plants and animals that we could eat or that could eat us. Natural history continues to be critical to human survival and thriving. It contributes to our fundamental understanding of how

1222-556: The Sorby Natural History Society, Sheffield , founded in 1918. The growth of natural history societies was also spurred due to the growth of British colonies in tropical regions with numerous new species to be discovered. Many civil servants took an interest in their new surroundings, sending specimens back to museums in the Britain . (See also: Indian natural history ) Societies in other countries include

1269-835: The USA in April of the same year. Stafford's book of the 60 days in isolation was released in the UK (Virgin Books) in June 2014 and was released in the USA (Penguin Books) in September 2014. Stafford appears on Discovery Channel in his self-filmed series Marooned with Ed Stafford that is a joint Europe and US Discovery Channel commission. The series was followed up by Ed Stafford: Into The Unknown , which follows Stafford on his travels to remote locations to investigate strange and inexplicable markings which have baffled scientists. The programme aired on

1316-403: The diversity of the natural world. Natural history was understood by Pliny the Elder to cover anything that could be found in the world, including living things, geology, astronomy, technology, art, and humanity. De Materia Medica was written between 50 and 70 AD by Pedanius Dioscorides , a Roman physician of Greek origin. It was widely read for more than 1,500 years until supplanted in

1363-410: The ecosystem, and stresses identification, life history, distribution, abundance, and inter-relationships. It often and appropriately includes an esthetic component", and T. Fleischner, who defines the field even more broadly, as "A practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy". These definitions explicitly include the arts in

1410-710: The emergence of professional biological disciplines and research programs. Particularly in the 19th century, scientists began to use their natural history collections as teaching tools for advanced students and the basis for their own morphological research. The term "natural history" alone, or sometimes together with archaeology, forms the name of many national, regional, and local natural history societies that maintain records for animals (including birds (ornithology), insects ( entomology ) and mammals (mammalogy)), fungi ( mycology ), plants (botany), and other organisms. They may also have geological and microscopical sections. Examples of these societies in Britain include

1457-411: The field of botany, be it as authors, collectors, or illustrators. In modern Europe, professional disciplines such as botany, geology, mycology , palaeontology , physiology , and zoology were formed. Natural history , formerly the main subject taught by college science professors, was increasingly scorned by scientists of a more specialized manner and relegated to an "amateur" activity, rather than

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1504-638: The field of natural history, and are aligned with the broad definition outlined by B. Lopez, who defines the field as the "Patient interrogation of a landscape" while referring to the natural history knowledge of the Eskimo ( Inuit ). A slightly different framework for natural history, covering a similar range of themes, is also implied in the scope of work encompassed by many leading natural history museums , which often include elements of anthropology, geology, paleontology, and astronomy along with botany and zoology, or include both cultural and natural components of

1551-481: The island without human intervention. During festivities, a goat is captured and removed from the island during the night by shining a flashlight on it, causing it to freeze. The island was featured on a Discovery Channel survival series, Marooned with Ed Stafford , in which a former British Army officer, Ed Stafford , spent 60 days alone on the island. This article about a geographical location in Fiji

1598-546: The rank of subaltern (second lieutenant) from 10 August 1996 and of subaltern (lieutenant) from 10 August 1998. His service number was 550823. He served a tour of duty in Northern Ireland in 2000. He was promoted to captain on 8 February 2002, before leaving the British Army on 7 August 2002. On 9 August 2010, he became the first person to have walked the entire length of the Amazon River , documented in

1645-451: The study of life at the level of the individual—of what plants and animals do, how they react to each other and their environment, how they are organized into larger groupings like populations and communities" and this more recent definition by D.S. Wilcove and T. Eisner: "The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior, and their relationships with other species". This focus on organisms in their environment

1692-524: The system of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus . The British historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham calls Li Shizhen "the 'uncrowned king' of Chinese naturalists", and his Bencao gangmu "undoubtedly the greatest scientific achievement of the Ming". His works translated to many languages direct or influence many scholars and researchers. A significant contribution to English natural history

1739-941: The world where each competes to complete a difficult trek with minimal provisions. Stafford's six competitors in season one are: Aldo Kane , ( Borneo , episode one), Khen Rhee ( Kazakhstan , episode two), Matt Graham ( Mongolia , episode three), EJ Snyder ( Thailand , episode four), Cat Bigney ( Palau , episode five) and John Hudson (India, episode six). Series two of First Man Out was filmed entirely in China and premiered in early 2020; Stafford's six competitors in season two are: Will Lord (Bashan, episode one), Josh James ( Yunnan Province, episode two), Ky Furneaux ( Four Girls Mountain Range , episode three), Matt 'The Juggernaut' Wright ( Wanshan Archipelago , episode four), Hakim Isler ( Zoige Marshes , episode five) and Xinlei Wu ( Aksai Desert , episode six). After his Amazon expedition Stafford began

1786-475: The world works by providing the empirical foundation of natural sciences, and it contributes directly and indirectly to human emotional and physical health, thereby fostering healthier human communities. It also serves as the basis for all conservation efforts, with natural history both informing the science and inspiring the values that drive these. As a precursor to Western science , natural history began with Aristotle and other ancient philosophers who analyzed

1833-687: The world's large natural history collections, such as the Natural History Museum, London , and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Three of the greatest English naturalists of the 19th century, Henry Walter Bates , Charles Darwin , and Alfred Russel Wallace —who knew each other—each made natural history travels that took years, collected thousands of specimens, many of them new to science, and by their writings both advanced knowledge of "remote" parts of

1880-564: The world. The plurality of definitions for this field has been recognized as both a weakness and a strength, and a range of definitions has recently been offered by practitioners in a recent collection of views on natural history. Prior to the advent of Western science humans were engaged and highly competent in indigenous ways of understanding the more-than-human world that are now referred to as traditional ecological knowledge . 21st century definitions of natural history are inclusive of this understanding, such as this by Thomas Fleischner of

1927-799: The world—the Amazon basin , the Galápagos Islands , and the Indonesian Archipelago , among others—and in so doing helped to transform biology from a descriptive to a theory-based science. The understanding of "Nature" as "an organism and not as a mechanism" can be traced to the writings of Alexander von Humboldt (Prussia, 1769–1859). Humboldt's copious writings and research were seminal influences for Charles Darwin, Simón Bolívar , Henry David Thoreau , Ernst Haeckel , and John Muir . Natural history museums , which evolved from cabinets of curiosities , played an important role in

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1974-546: Was also held up both at gunpoint and by bow and arrow, and arrested for both drug smuggling and murder – the latter occurring when he coincidentally arrived in an isolated settlement the same day as a community member had gone missing. He was locked in a wooden hut for eight hours before being allowed to continue his journey. In May 2009 Stafford appeared on the cover of the Royal Geographical Society 's Geographical magazine. In May 2008 Stafford

2021-801: Was basically static through the Middle Ages in Europe—although in the Arabic and Oriental world, it proceeded at a much brisker pace. From the 13th century, the work of Aristotle was adapted rather rigidly into Christian philosophy , particularly by Thomas Aquinas , forming the basis for natural theology . During the Renaissance, scholars (herbalists and humanists, particularly) returned to direct observation of plants and animals for natural history, and many began to accumulate large collections of exotic specimens and unusual monsters . Leonhart Fuchs

2068-667: Was educated at Uppingham and was a Cub and a Scout in Leicestershire. Stafford graduated with a BSc in Geography from Newcastle University in 1997. Stafford joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in September 1998, and after a year's training he was commissioned in the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment of the British Army as a subaltern on 7 August 1999: he was granted seniority in

2115-507: Was made Diane Sawyer 's ABC News "Person of the Week". Stafford's accomplishment of walking the Amazon river has been described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as being "truly extraordinary...in the top league of expeditions past and present". Stafford was announced as one of National Geographic Adventurers of the Year 2010 and then in March 2011 he was awarded European Adventurer of the Year in

2162-402: Was made by parson-naturalists such as Gilbert White , William Kirby , John George Wood , and John Ray , who wrote about plants, animals, and other aspects of nature. Many of these men wrote about nature to make the natural theology argument for the existence or goodness of God. Since early modern times, however, a great number of women made contributions to natural history, particularly in

2209-405: Was one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with Otto Brunfels and Hieronymus Bock . Other important contributors to the field were Valerius Cordus , Konrad Gesner ( Historiae animalium ), Frederik Ruysch , and Gaspard Bauhin . The rapid increase in the number of known organisms prompted many attempts at classifying and organizing species into taxonomic groups , culminating in

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