Species Blindness- Learning to truly ‘see’ Nature

7 min readAug 28, 2022

Most folks can’t really see. They stumble around looking but really don’t see anything. This is especially true when they are traipsing around in the woods. Everything seems to blend together in a blurry green and brown landscape.

We had a mission. Our goal was to explore the forest and have an adventure! With 30 eager teens in tow, I was leading a a Nature Exploration Expedition acceentuated with a few Outdoor Learning activities at the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), home to some of the world’s most Biodiverse Ecosystems in the world.

The students were from inner city Kuala Lumpur and had rarely been to a wild natural place like FRIM- home to Malaysia’s Mega-Diverse Tropical Rainforest!

My Plan

One of the groups would complete an aquatic macro-invertebrate survey in a creek. They would scoop out nets full of benthic debris and spread it out on the ground to see what they could find. Hopefully we’d discover crabs, shrimp and pleny of aquatic insects!

Usually, the leaf litter is habitat for dragonfly nymphs, crabs, fish, mayfly and caddisfly larvae, and a myriad of other cool critters that call the stream habitat home.

The other group would stalk around in the forest doing a walking linear transect and scuttle through the forest while peaking under logs, scanning the ground and the canopy looking for sylvan wonders that inhabit the Mysterious Malaysian Rainforest.

The idea was that I would get both groups started and then jog the 500meters or so in between groups to check up on their progress and what they had discovered.

Following a quick briefing for both groups, I set the forest group off on their adventure.

I let them know I would return in a bit and then proceeded to take the stream group down to their riparian site.

After demonstrating the dipping technique and scooping up a few nets full of organic matter the Stream Group was separating vertebrates, invertebrates and organic debris into piles to be examined and identified later. They were on the hunt for stream fauna!

I did a brisk walk back to check on the Forest Group and they were nowhere to be found!

I expected them to be where I left them!

After all, I had only been gone about 20 minutes to get the other group started, barely enough time to explore 50meters of the species rich Malaysian Rainforest

Surely, the Forest Group would have only moved about 10–15 meters since they would be busy discovering and uncovering all kinds of loamy and earthy worms, burrowing insects, insect homes, tracks, leaf shapes and a huge variety of diverse plants displaying a rainbow of colors, infinite leaf shapes, adaptations with odd flowers, fruits and seeds on display.

They were in THE MOST biologically diverse region of the planet. There is more cool stuff per square meter than any other place on the planet!

I scooted around looking for them. It took a while to slog through the forest and locate the group.

I thought they would have only moved a few meters.

When I finally found them, they were already at the end of the trail and in another section of the forest.

I asked, “what did you see?”

Expecting an enthusiastic reply of all kinds of strange and novel encounters with beetles, cicada sounds, huge leavesbigger than a human torso, and an array of strange and exotic two-winged flying seeds, prolific flowers, and bizarre fruits.

“Nothing.”, they collectively replied. “There wasn’t anything to see.”

“What?!”, I exclaimed in total shock!

Their teacher spoke up, “Ya, there wasn’t anything there. We walked all the way here and didn’t see anything.”

WHOA! I was doubly shocked!

I thought the teacher would have known better.

I marched them back to the start of the trail, our original starting point.

As we walked back I kept quizzing them on why they hadn’t seen anything.

They said everything looks the same. Everything blends in. It’s all just green and brown. It all looks the same to us.

Then it dawned on me!

They truly didn’t know how to look, they didn’t truly see, observe or distinguish the subtle differences in leaf shapes, insect sounds, bird calls, or flower shape adaptations.

To them it really did all look the same!

Ok. Now I know! That’s when I coined the term SPECIES BLINDNESS (the inability to distinguish species in an ecosystem, when all life seems to ‘blend together’ and form a large amorphic mass of flora an/or fauna stumbling around looking but not really seeing anything. especially true when one is traipsing around wild unfamiliar habitats such as hiking in the woods, snorkeling over a coral reef, exploring a rainforest canopy or undersory, or stomping through a muddy mangrove. Everything seems to blend together in a blurry green and brown landscape.)

Starting over and tuning in

As we started exploring again, I told them to look closely. Stare at the same spot for a while. A few minutes even. Look away and then look back at the same spot a few times.

Tune in to the very subtle differences in soil texture, animal signs, piles of insect, bird, and squirrel poop, wild boar tracks, dug-up soil where the boars had been rooting around for mushrooms and worms, and chewed up fruits on the ground.

I Instructed them ‘See if you can distinguish a couple of different micro-habitats.’

‘Look at the decomposition of an old tree. Examine the shapes of the dipterocarp seeds.’

‘Observe the subtle differences in the pitch of the cicada, cricket noises, and Bulbul bird chatter.’

We spent the next 30 minutes and only moved a couple of meters!

We uncovered a vinegaroon! Saw a wide range of fungi living in and amongst the roots of trees, banged on the buttress roots of giant dipterocarps, touched lichens and moss on the bark of trees, flipped over logs, and pondered the activities of termite colonies.

When we finally looked up we were essentially in the same place where we had started but had discovered dozens of species we’d never seen before! It was truly amazing!

Now they were tuned in.

We met up with the Stream Group for the rotation.

The Forest Group gave them hints and tips on how to truly see the forest.

Take your time.

Walk slowly.

Observe. Observe and then observe some more.

Stare at the same spot for a while.

Look in hidden places.

There’s no need to walk far, just dig up the soil and flip over some logs.

Look closely at the sides of the trees.

Listen for all kinds of buzzing noises.

The Stream Group did the same.

The macro-invertebrates are camouflaged so look closely.

Look for movement in the leaf litter.

Take scoops near the edge where there are more dead leaves.

Flip over rocks in the middle of the stream and look for things squirming around.

We had a GREAT day and learned a ton!

SPECIES BLINDNESS

After they left it got me to thinking.

On reflection, I realized that they really could not distinguish between subtle differences in the rainforest flora and fauna.

They suffered what I now call SPECIES BLINDNESS. The inability to see different species as separate and distinct. Species Blindness happens when you look out at the landscape and all species seem to lump together in a mass of blurry green.

They could not see the patterns in Nature or the disruption in those patterns caused by an animal crawling or scuttling around. They couldn’t distinguish a different shape, color, or sound that didn’t fit into the overall landscape or soundscape. For them, it all blended and lumped together in a blurry green and brown mess.

Years of sitting alone in the forest had trained me well. Thousands of hours spent playing in Nature had taught me to see those patterns and how even the most camouflaged animal subtly disrupts the pattern.

I learned to SEE after years and thousands of hours of play and practice outdoors.

It made me wonder. How many people suffer from species blindness?

Maybe it’s one of the reasons so many people don’t truly appreciate nature.

They can’t SEE the differences and they lump everything together and so they don’t SEE Nature’s subtle beauty.

Luckily, I know the cure for species blindness!