In an exclusive feature for Discover Animals, author and avian expert Rosemary Low shares the inspiration behind her new book, Female Heroes of Bird Conservation, published by Insignis Publications. This latest book brings together the stories and achievements of over 30 women – past and present – who have dedicated their lives to increasing our knowledge and awareness of birds, saving lives and species from extinction…
Where it all began
It all started with a Budgerigar that I purchased from a store when I was 12 years old in the 1950s. It led to me travelling the world in search of birds. I bought a second Budgie and soon they were breeding. This resulted in an all-absorbing interest in members of the parrot family. As much as I enjoyed keeping them, it was watching them in the wild that was my biggest joy.
I started travelling to the tropics in the 1970s, at a time when knowledge about the endangered status of so many members of this all-too-popular family was lacking. Little was known about their declining numbers, due to merciless and uncontrolled trapping for the pet trade and because of habitat destruction.
From aviculture to conservation
Although I was to become curator of two of Europe’s most important parrot collections (which includes what became the most important in the world – Loro Parque in Tenerife), my priority was fast moving from aviculture to conservation. As a writer, I was able to alert parrot keepers through my books, which were translated into eight languages. My magazine articles appeared regularly in a dozen or so countries (alas, no longer the case as many magazines have not survived) and informed readers what was happening to wild parrot populations and urged them to support conservation projects.
Over the years, I met many people involved in bird conservation. I travelled far and wide in the course of my life, to see parrots in their natural habitats or to visit conservation projects, in situ or ex-situ (zoos, for example).
In the earlier years of my travels, I met no women involved in bird conservation. It was a man’s domain. In later years, that is, in this century, I started to meet women in conservation and their passion and commitment was extraordinary. And their independence and their initiatives! Of course, I also met men whose achievements in the world of conservation were ground-breaking – yet there was a quality in these women that is not so apparent in most men. It is difficult to describe but it might be compassion and concern for individual birds, as well as the survival of the species.
Inspirational women
In my travels I met women who, initially, with little help but with sheer determination, all founded remarkable organisations. In Brazil, Neiva Guedes is a legend. On several visits to the Pantanal, the huge, seasonally flooded area which is so important for its species diversity and for the environment, I saw her team in action. Neiva, almost single-handed initially, started her work, which revived the dangerously low population (due to illegal trapping) of the iconic Hyacinth Macaw. This is the world’s largest and arguably most spectacular parrot. She is the founder and the director of the Hyacinth Macaw Institute, which has erected hundreds of nest-boxes which have been used by these huge birds when so many natural nest sites had been destroyed (www.institutoararaazul.org.br).
And in Brazil, the courageous and self-reliant renowned ornithologist and explorer Emilie Snethlage amputated her infected finger when a piranha had eaten the tip.
In 2001, I read a story about Bernadette Plair in an American magazine. She grew up in Trinidad and recalled, as a child, seeing magnificent Blue and Yellow Macaws flying overhead in the Nariva Swamp. Sadly, they were trapped to extinction. Bernadette, then a scientist at the Cincinnati Zoo, conceived the idea of reintroducing macaws to this area – a very difficult project and one in which she succeeded. I wrote to her and she phoned me, inviting me to go on the next trip to Trinidad with her. In fact, I went there with her twice. To this day Bernadette is another inspirational woman whose friendship I value enormously.
Female Heroes of Bird Conservation is divided into two parts. The first looks at the lives of past heroines who, far ahead of their times, did remarkable things for birds in an era when a woman’s place was in the kitchen. Yet Emma Turner (1867-1940) could be found in the Norfolk Broads, hidden under a pile of marsh litter, so well camouflaged that once she had a Cuckoo sitting on her head! And in Brazil, the courageous and self-reliant renowned ornithologist and explorer Emilie Snethlage amputated her infected finger when a piranha had eaten the tip.
Brazilian women are remarkable. In 2013, as I recounted in my book Parrot Conservation (published by New Holland, 2021), I met Kilma Manso, renowned for her work with Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari). A powerful woman! She initiated a scheme to compensate farmers for corn crop losses. The endangered macaw, endemic to the north-east, was forced to feed on corn (a precious crop in this arid region) because its natural food sources had been destroyed, leading to farmers killing them.
In 2016, in Brazil’s south-east coastal region, I met Silvana Davino, in Switzerland in 2013 I had a memorable encounter with Elisabeth Schlumpf, and in Los Angeles in 2007 I was invited by psychologist Dr Lorin Lindner to visit her remarkable retreat where war veterans and abused parrots give each other comfort and confidence. These three heroines rescued birds, wild and captive, and gave them a new chance in life.
Of the 19 contemporary subjects to whom I devoted a chapter in the second half of the book, I have met, or I know well, 13 of these remarkable women. I want all women to be empowered by their histories, and I want all men to appreciate the huge contribution that women have made to science and to conservation. And to note that some were not involved in these spheres until they were in their forties! Yet they went on to make major contributions to science.
Future heroes
As I wrote the book, I thought a lot about young women working in conservation today and I sought their views. I included chapters on the problems and, yes, the discrimination that they have encountered. But I showed how these were overcome to encourage those with similar issues to meet them head on and to know that they can win.
Yes! I am adamant that more women should be involved in conservation because they have much-needed qualities.
I hope that my book will inspire even more females in this vitally important sphere to realise what an important contribution they can make. This applies especially to the younger generation who are fast moving into conservation positions formerly occupied by men.
About the author:
Rosemary Low’s publishing output includes 33 books on birds, translated into 10 languages – and hundreds of articles published in bird journals throughout the world. Her other recent books include Parrot Conservation and Parrots: A Celebration of their Beauty, published in 2021. Watching parrots in their natural habitats, especially in connection with conservation initiatives, is her greatest pleasure. She has supported many parrot conservation projects, especially in South America, and has spoken at bird conservation conferences in Europe, the USA, Australia and elsewhere since the 1980s. In the late 1980s and during the 1990s, she was curator of birds at Loro Parque, Tenerife, and Palmitos Park, Gran Canaria.
Female Heroes of Bird Conservation can be ordered through:
The author: rosemaryhlow@gmail.com or www.rosemarylow.co.uk
Wildside Books: wildsidebooks@hotmail.com
Birdguides: Paperback and Hardback
Female Heroes of Bird Conservation – Paperback
£21.95
Parrot Conservation – Paperback
£26.85
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