Kerry-Jayne WilsonMNZM (6 March 1949 – 29 March 2022) was a New Zealand biologist and lecturer in ecology at Lincoln University in the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Work
As an undergraduate, Wilson spent the summer of 1969–1970 in the Snares Islands, working as an assistant to the Australian ornithologist and photographer John Warham. She was struck by the huge numbers of sooty shearwaters (Puffinus griseus), penguins, petrels, and prions, and seabirds later became her research focus.[1]
Wilson worked for over 40 years on different conservation projects in New Zealand, with a focus on its avifauna. Most of her field research on seabirds was conducted in New Zealand, the Chathams, the sub-Antarctic Islands, and Antarctica, but she also worked in Mongolia, Malaysia, Newfoundland, Indonesia and the Cook Islands.[4][5][6] One of her research projects was on the endangered Chatham petrel (Pterodroma axillaris), where she helped develop a burrow entrance flap that prevented broad-billed prions (Pachyptila vittata) from invading Chatham petrel nesting burrows and disturbing their chicks.[7]
Wilson started teaching at Lincoln University in the entomology department as a lecturer in 1986 under her male birth name.[a][11] After teaching ecology for 23 years, Wilson retired to Charleston on the West Coast of the South Island in 2009.[12] She continued to be involved in conservation projects, and was a founding trustee of the West Coast Penguin Trust in 2006.[12][13] Her work with the Trust led to the construction in 2014 of a three-kilometre (1.9 mi) fence along State Highway 6, which prevented blue penguins from being killed on the road.[14] She was involved with the conservation of the Westland petrel (Procellaria westlandica) colony near Punakaiki, including strategies to protect petrel fledglings from being disoriented and confused by street lights.[15]
In 2021, Wilson published New Zealand Seabirds, a summary of her 50 years of research. She died on 29 March 2022.[16]
Awards and honours
In 2012, Wilson was awarded the OSNZ's Robert Falla Memorial Award for her "work... in the field of ornithology and her contributions to the work of the society over many years".[17][18][19]
In 2023, the fossil penguin species Eudyptula wilsonae was named after her.[21]
Publications
Wilson published 70 scientific papers and three books. Among her most important works is Flight of the Huia, a book that deals with the issue of species conservation in New Zealand.
— (2007). A Checklist to New Zealand Birds, Frogs, Reptiles, Mammals and Butterflies. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press. ISBN978-1-877257513.
— (2013). West Coast Walking: a naturalist's guide to the West Coast. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press. ISBN978-1-927145-42-5.
— (2021). New Zealand Seabirds: a natural history. Nelson: Potton & Burton. ISBN978-1-98-855025-1.
Footnotes
^In the 1989 Lincoln College Calendar, Wilson last appears under her male birth name.[9] In the 1990 Lincoln University Calendar, compiled on 1 October 1989, she first appears as Kerry-Jayne Wilson.[10]
^"New Year honours list 2019". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
^Daniel B. Thomas, Alan J.D. Tennyson, Felix G. Marx, and Daniel T. Ksepka, 2023 Pliocene fossils support a New Zealand origin for the smallest extant penguins Journal of Paleontology: 1–11 doi:10.1017/jpa.2023.30.