The old ecologist is a loose caricature of a guy who worked at my old summer camp. The real guy actually was an ecologist who was working to relocate endangered box turtles, mostly turtles who had lost their homes to deforestation. The camp had plenty of wilderness areas, so they made this deal: the guy could use the camp grounds for turtle wrangling, but in exchange, he had to hold classes to teach the campers about box turtles. Unlike his cartoon counterpart, the real ecologist seemed very shy. I felt that it was a little unfair that he had to speak in front of crowds of strangers in order to keep his work alive. I wonder if I'm the only one from that group who still remembers the turtle lectures. I'm possibily the only one who was able to use that information to raise her own turtle.