Early Life
Born at Castle Rock in India, his exposure to the wilderness during his childhood in the forests of the Goa area shaped his lifelong interest in natural history:
| “ | Some of the grandest tropical forest surrounded the area and the fauna abounded with wildlife, from elephants to flies, so much so that doors had to be closed at sundown for fear of dangerous intruders—even the King Cobra, though rare, occurred in the area. Such an environment seems to have influenced my future as a student of nature! My parents informed me that I was the bane of their existence for I froze on to everything that moved. All attempts at shaping my ends had no avail. From misdirected babyhood onwards the kink increased out of all proportion (according to some, I was just daft!) | ” |
He studied at St. Mary's High school at Mazagaon in Bombay (now Mumbai) and worked for a while under Father Ethelbert Blatter at St. Xavier's College as a laboratory assistant and curator. During 1916-1920 he worked under Blatter on botany. He briefly worked with the Bombay city police and then joined the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) as a collector for the Mammal Survey. He worked on the survey around 1921-22 in the Palni Hills and also in the Indus delta areas.
Read more about this topic: Charles Mc Cann
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