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Charles Lyell
John Endler is a naturalist who became well-known in the 1970s for his research with guppies found in the rivers and streams of northeast South America. Through a series of experiments both in the wild and in controlled laboratory settings, Endler was able to deduce that guppies who were threatened by predators would evolve to have drab, dull spots, while those who lived in safer environments evolved to have brighter, shinier spots meant to attract mates. Endler, Jonathan Weiner writes, is to guppies as the Grants are to finches.
John Endler Quotes in The Beak of the Finch
The The Beak of the Finch quotes below are all either spoken by John Endler or refer to John Endler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
The answer is that a male guppy has more to do in life than merely survive. It also has to mate. To survive it has to hide among the colored gravel at the bottom of its stream and among the other guppies of its school. But to mate it has to stand out from the gravel and stand out from the school. It has to elude the eyes of the cichlid or the prawn while catching the eyes of the female guppy.
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John Endler Quotes in The Beak of the Finch
The The Beak of the Finch quotes below are all either spoken by John Endler or refer to John Endler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
The answer is that a male guppy has more to do in life than merely survive. It also has to mate. To survive it has to hide among the colored gravel at the bottom of its stream and among the other guppies of its school. But to mate it has to stand out from the gravel and stand out from the school. It has to elude the eyes of the cichlid or the prawn while catching the eyes of the female guppy.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
