(Reuters) – Here are five facts about American biologist, naturalist and environmentalist E.O. Wilson, hailed as the Darwin of the 21st century, who died on Sunday at age 92 :
* A young Wilson lost most of his vision in his right eye when it was cut by a fish’s fin. He said the injury led him to concentrate on ants and other insects because he could examine them up close with his good eye, given that he had trouble spotting larger animals in open areas.
* For his book “Pheidole in the New World,” a study of ants, Wilson did all 5,000 drawings himself, Harvard magazine said.
* Wilson grew up in the Southern Baptist church and eventually came to think of himself not as an atheist or agnostic but as a “provisional deist” who is “willing to accept the possibility that there is some kind of intelligent force beyond our current understanding”.
* Wilson honed his love of nature in the Boy Scouts, which he called an organization that “seemed invented just for me.” He reached the elite rank of Eagle Scout.
* Wilson’s other honors include the U.S. National Medal of Science, two Pulitzer Prizes for non-fiction and a spot on Time magazine’s list of the 25 most influential people in 1995.
(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
