Elton, Charles Sutherland (1900-1991), was an English biologist. He was known as a pioneer in establishing the science of ecology, which deals with the relation of living things to their environment and to one another.
Elton recognized that animal species and populations fit together in their environment to form communities. He recognized the concept of ecological niche—the idea that each species has a unique function and place within the environment (see Ecology (The role of a species)). Elton also pointed out that a large number of plants are needed to supply food for a smaller number of plant-eating animals. Such animals, in turn, provide food for an even smaller number of meat-eating creatures. Elton called this natural system of food relationships a pyramid of numbers.
Elton was born on March 29, 1900, in Manchester and graduated from Oxford University in 1922. He taught animal ecology at Oxford from 1932 until he retired in 1967. Elton wrote Animal Ecology (1927) and The Pattern of Animal Communities (1966). He died on May 1, 1991.
