John Dennis (ornithologist)

John Value Dennis
Born1915 (1915)
Princess Anne, Maryland, U.S.
DiedDecember 1, 2002(2002-12-01) (aged 86–87)
Princess Anne, Maryland
Resting placePrincess Anne, Maryland
Alma mater
Scientific career
FieldsOrnithology

John Value Dennis (1915/1916 – December 1, 2002)[1] was an American ornithologist and botanist.

Early life

John V. Dennis was born in 1915 in Princess Anne, Maryland to Alfred and Mary Dennis (nee Value). Alfred Dennis passed away when Dennis was a teenager. Mary operated a boarding house in Washington, D.C..

Dennis was an undergraduate at George Washington University but his study was interrupted by World War II. During the war, he served as a radar technician with the Flying Tigers aircraft unit in Yunnan, China.

He finished his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin, obtaining a degree in political science. This was followed by a master's degree in botany from the University of Florida. He started, but did not complete, a PhD in ornithology at the University of Illinois.[2]

Work and contributions

Botany

In 1976, Dennis and fellow botanist Dr. C.R. Gunn wrote the guide World Guide to Tropical Drift Seeds and Fruits. Additionally, Dennis co-authored Sea-Beans from the Tropics: A Collector's Guide to Sea-Beans With Ed Perry.[2] While some of Dennis' work, like that on sea beans, the floatation of tropical drift seeds, are written from a more scientific perspective, Dennis' work also guided amateur gardeners and botanists, like The Wildlife Gardener, which describes how to design a garden that attracts local wildlife.[3] Dennis' work was often through a conservation lens, such as his book The Great Cypress Swamps, where he discusses the importance and history of swampland in the United States.[4]

Search for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

Dennis studied woodpeckers extensively, and is credited with creating a repellent to keep woodpeckers off telephone polls.[2]

In particular he was interested in, and searched extensively for, the critically endangered ivory-billed woodpecker in Cuba and in old-growth forests of the southeastern United States.

In 1948, working with Davis Crompton, he traveled to the Oriente Province of Cuba and located a subspecies, called the Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker, after it had not been reported there for several years.[5] He reported a sighting in the Big Thicket of southeast Texas in 1966, which he called his "only good look at a North American ivorybill";[2] he returned in 1968, recording what he believed to be the bird's call.[2]

Many ornithologists, including James Tanner, generally regarded as the leading authority on ivory-bills, were skeptical of both the sighting and the recorded bird.[6][7] His sightings formed part of the basis for the creation of the Big Thicket National Preserve.[8][9]

Bird feeding

He wrote A Complete Guide to Bird Feeding (1975), a book that increased interest in bird feeding.[1] This book was largely credited for increasing interest in bird feeding in the United States, and was reprinted in 1994.[1]

Personal life

Dennis married his wife, Mary Alice in 1945.[10] They had two daughters, and a son.[1]

Dennis died of a brain tumor in 2002 at his home in Princess Anne, Maryland.[11]

Partial list of works

  • Dennis, J. V. (1948). "A last remnant of Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Cuba." Auk 65:497–507.
  • —— (1967). "The Ivory-bill flies still." Audubon 69(6):38–45.
  • —— (1975). A Complete Guide to Bird Feeding.
  • —— (1988). The Great Cypress Swamp.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "John V. Dennis, 86; Wrote on Feeding Birds". The New York Times. December 9, 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnes, Bart (December 7, 2002). "John Dennis Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  3. ^ Dennis, John (May 12, 1985). The Wildlife Gardener (1st ed.). New York, New York: Knopf. ISBN 0394535820.
  4. ^ Dennis, John V.; Maslowski, Steve (1988). The great cypress swamps. Baton Rouge London: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-1501-5.
  5. ^ Sykes, Paul W. Jr. (2016). "A Personal Perspective on Searching for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker: A 41-Year Quest". USGS Staff – Published Research: 1026.
  6. ^ Moser, Don (April 7, 1972). "The Last Ivory Bill". Life. pp. 52–60.
  7. ^ Hall, Phil (April 1, 2019). "The holy grail of birds". Wag. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  8. ^ United States Congress (1969). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress, Volume 115, Part 30. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 40392–40393.
  9. ^ United States. Congress. Senate. Interior and Insular Affairs (1971). Hearing before the Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States Senate Ninety-First Congress Second Session on S. 4 To Establish The Big Thicket National Park in Texas. Washington, DC.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ "Miss Sturdevant Wears Heirloom Wedding Dress". Evening Star (Newspaper). Washington, D.C. December 30, 1945. p. 32.
  11. ^ Gallagher, Tim (April 25, 2017). The grail bird. ISBN 978-1-328-85911-2. OCLC 988087126.