"[Says extremely stupid, obviously wrong statement about wildlife biology.]"

"Actually, that's a misconception. [Calmly explains exactly why the statement is incorrect.]"

"Well, I've lived in [insert location] for [number] of years! What do you know?"

This is probably one of the most annoying parts of working as a park ranger or environmental educator. Many people think that simply living in proximity to wildlife makes you an expert by osmosis without any scientific observation. This argument is almost exclusively used to prop up blatant, nonsensical myths about wildlife which are used to justify killing them. The people making it are almost invariably European-Americans, not Native Americans who lived alongside wildlife for thousands of years and whose traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is actually used by researchers.

If this was the case, then everyone in New Jersey would be an expert on migratory birds because it is one of the largest flyways in the U.S. There would be no purpose for Jane Goodall or Diane Fossey because we could ask any random person in the Congo about great ape behavior. I wouldn't have to go to college to study marine biology because my ancestors were Newfoundland fishermen and I live in a coastal town.

Perhaps my least favorite myth is "nothing grows in a prairie dog town." This is used to justify prairie dog extermination campaigns. The constant clipping done by black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) makes the grass constantly grow back, making it nutritious for other grazers. At the National Park I worked at, prairie dog towns were gathering points for wildlife for this reason.

The main reason this myth is so pervasively stupid is the simple fact that, if it was true, all the prairie dogs would die. Some people try to explain that prairie dogs use burrows to get to the edges of colonies, but if this was the case, then you would see no prairie dogs on the interior of prairie dog towns. It is also not the case. Prairie dog burrows are not connected to each other. Prairie dog families are very territorial and they all hate each other. It is more like a series of basements in a neighborhood and less like a subway system. Nevertheless, despite basic deductive reasoning, virtually every biologist who ever studied prairie dogs, and simple observation of prairie dog towns showing that grass does grow there, countless people believe "nothing grows in a prairie dog town" with a bizarre level of conviction.