On the Uses of Fieldwork in Animal History

This article presents an argument for the use of anthropological-style fieldwork as a method in animal history. Acknowledging the difficulties of accessing the animal past, it proposes that fieldwork can be used both to generate more zoocentric research questions and to interpret sources in ways that complement or go beyond established scientific explanations of animal actions. The potential of the method is demonstrated through the exploration of a specific empirical question, about how red deer (Cervus elaphus) herds in the Scottish Highlands were affected by the 20th-century boom in plantation forestry. Tracking 1950s deer movements across a cluster of hunting estates in the Angus Glens, the article uses fieldwork observations to suggest a new theory of what might have put red deer populations on the move at different times in history, positing a deer-social, rather than wholly environmental, cause. In so doing, it presents new possibilities for animal-centric histories.