The fundamental properties of organisms—what they are, how and where they live, and the biotic and abiotic interactions that link them to communities and ecosystems—are the domain of natural history. We provide examples illustrating the vital importance of natural history knowledge to many disciplines, from human health and food security to conservation, management, and recreation. We then present several lines of evidence showing that traditional approaches to and support for natural history in developed economies has declined significantly over the past 40 years. Finally, we argue that a revitalization of the practice of natural history—one that is focused on new frontiers in a rapidly changing world and that incorporates new technologies—would provide significant benefits for both science and society.

In recently fragmented landscapes, hunting pressure increases because hunters can access previously remote habitats. Yet fewer than 0.5% of fragmentation studies with mammals have also assessed the impacts of hunting. Herein, by means of camera-traps and track-plots, we analyzed the impact of hunting and forest fragmentation on species richness and relative abundances of twelve species of large and medium-sized mammals. With both methods we found fewer species in hunted sites than in control sites, but the effect was inconsistent in fragmented habitats with hunting. Hunting negatively affected the indices of abundance for five of the 12 species and never had a positive effect. Contrary to the hypothesis that the combination of fragmentation and hunting would lead to the largest decrease in abundance, we found that the addition of fragmentation in hunted landscapes negatively affected only two species (red brocket deer [Mazama americana] and margay cat [Leopardus wiedii]) and positively affected three smaller species (crab-eating foxes [Cerdocyon thous], coatis [Nasua nasua], and agoutis [Dasyprocta spp.]). We also found a significant relationship between body mass and the effects of fragmentation (smaller species positively affected), but no relationship between body mass and the effect of hunting. Had we only compared results from the control with fragmented sites, we would have found a negative effect of fragmentation on five species abundance indices, a negative effect on species richness, and a positive effect on three species abundance indices. These results indicate that a failure to explicitly incorporate the effects of hunting into the design of fragmentation experiments can lead to widely different conclusions.