John Dennis (ornithologist)

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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[edit]

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[edit]

Botany[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

  • 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[edit]

  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.
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