Brian Douglas Bell (5 March 1930 – 1 October 2016) was a New Zealand
environmental consultant and
ornithologist.
Born in 1930, Bell grew up in
Marlborough and
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
. Surrounded by hills, braided riverbeds, islands and rocky coasts, he soon became deeply interested in natural history.
He worked for the
New Zealand Wildlife Service between 1957 and 1987 on the management and conservation of
threatened species
Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of '' critical depen ...
. Bell, along with
Don Merton, was part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempt in 1964 to save the
South Island snipe
The South Island snipe (''Coenocorypha iredalei''), also known as the Stewart Island snipe or tutukiwi in Māori, is an extinct species of bird in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae that was endemic to New Zealand.
Taxonomy and etymology
Determ ...
, the
greater short-tailed bat, and the
New Zealand bush wren from extinction after the invasion of
Big South Cape Island by rats.
In the
1984 Queen's Birthday Honours, Bell was awarded the
Queens Service Medal for public services. He was a member of the
Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native b ...
(RAOU), and was elected a
Fellow of the RAOU in 1990. He was president of the
Ornithological Society of New Zealand
The Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ), also known as Birds New Zealand, is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the study of birds and their habitats in the New Zealand region. Founded in 1940, it caters to a wide variety of people in ...
(OSNZ) from 1972 to 1979, and again from 1989 to 1995. He was awarded the OSNZ
Robert Falla Memorial Award
The Robert Falla Memorial Award (sometimes referred to as the Falla Award) is granted by the Ornithological Society of New Zealand to people "who have made a significant contribution to both the Ornithological Society of New Zealand and to New Zea ...
in 1987, and elected a Fellow of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand in 1998.
Bell died in Marlborough on 1 October 2016.
References
External links
* Brian Bell discussed on RNZ ''Critter of the Week''
14 October 2016
See also
*
List of ornithologists
1930 births
2016 deaths
New Zealand ornithologists
New Zealand public servants
Recipients of the Queen's Service Medal
People from the Marlborough Region
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