Page 43 - IB December 2023

Cover
People People
from New Zealand to locate Fiji Petrel nesting burrows, sadly
without success.
Twenty years later, he was on the committee that selected
the Fiji Petrel to feature on the country’s $20 note.

Early Life
Dick Watling was born in Kampala, Uganda, but the family
soon moved to Kenya into a life of discovery, as it was inside
the country’s national parks that Dick Watling set the course
for his career.
He was sent to public school in England at seven years of
age, and at 17, during a ‘a gap year’, spent 18 months as an
apprentice assistant at Tanzania’s Serengeti Research Station,
where he received his grounding as a fledgling biologist
working with what he says were some of the “best ecologists
in the world.”
While at school, Dr Watling lost both of his parents but
Cloud Forest, Survey Point, Lore Lindu NP, Indonesia, 1982 was fortunate to be mentored by a close family friend,
tobacco farmer Murray Charters, who worked in Africa and
globally, including Dr Jane Goodall, noted for her work with then in Fiji in the early 1960s, where they invited the young
chimpanzees. Watling to spend his school holidays. Charters and his wife
SPREP (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment were enthusiastic wildlife observers and became Dr Watling’s
Programme) has honoured him with the Pacific Islands adopted parents.
Environment Leadership Award (PIELA) Lifetime Achievement Dr Watling began his formal education towards his career
Award. Not surprisingly, Watling was even more proud of as a conservationist, with three years at the University of
NatureFiji-MareqetiViti receiving the PIELA Community Bristol, where he received his B.Sc (Hons) in Zoology in 1973,
Leadership in Environmental Sustainability & Conservation and then at Cambridge, where in 1977, he received his PhD
Award from SPREP, also in 2020. for his research in Fiji on the applied ecology of the Bulbul,
an invasive bird brought to Fiji, from India, before 1903. The
Fiji Petrel rediscovered research was conducted while working with the Ministry of
In Dr Watling’s long list of accomplishments, none has Agriculture.
received more attention than his rediscovery of the Fiji With his PhD completed, he returned to Fiji and set about
Petrel. Its last official sighting had been in 1855 when a authoring his first book, Birds of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa,
specimen was brought onboard the HMS Herald, which passed working with illustrator Chloe Talbot-Kelly.
the specimen onto the British Museum. Here, the Fiji Petrel Dr Watling was key in the development of sites in Fiji that
was declared as a new species, but thereafter thought as reflected natural beauty and are of historical importance.
extinct. The Bouma waterfall in Taveuni, Abaca-Koroyanitu Heritage
One hundred and twenty-nine years later, Dr Watling stood Park and the Tavuni Hill Fort in Sigatoka; all are sites that
in the dark on a hilltop on the Fiji island of Gau, holding a have not only conserved forests but have become tourist
spotlight. attractions and a source of income for landowners.
This was his fifth trip to Gau, where islanders had reported
sighting a bird with all the markings of the Fiji Petrel. The Fiji Indonesian Experience
Petrel is pelagic, always at sea, only visiting land to lay their In 1979, Dr Watling was approached by the World Wildlife
eggs. They are also sensitive to light. The spotlight worked. Fund (WWF) Indonesia, initially to study two endemic species
Out of the dark, diving towards earth, flew the Fiji Petrel. It in Sulawesi, but the project significantly broadened to assist
skimmed past Dr Watling’s head and fell at his feet. Since that in setting up two national parks, work that covered a four-
night in 1984, only 17 of the Fiji Petrel have been recorded, year period.
having crashed into roofs or having been grounded in villages Dr Watling credits this experience with providing his solid
on Gau. Its chance for survival is in peril. grounding as a tropical forest biodiversity specialist, a title he
NatureFiji has declared the Fiji Petrel its “species guardian” accepts as defining his work as a conservationist.
and introduced measures to protect it on land. While this has In Sulawesi, he lived in and helped develop the successful
achieved limited success, it remains one of the world’s rarest Lore Kalamanta National Park that, with his encouragement,
birds. had its name changed to the Lore Lindu NP.
But to ensure that its continued existence was documented, An important aspect of Dr Watling’s work in Indonesia was
Dr Watling organised international photographers to capture to encourage its Government and the World Wildlife Fund to
the elusive birds on film, flying well off shore from Gau. More share National Park development plans and their proposed
directly, he arranged for trained ‘bird dogs’ to be brought in boundaries with the local communities. In 1980, the WWF

Islands Business, December 2023 43