Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Richard Liversidge, 1926–2003

2004; Wiley; Volume: 146; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1474-919x.2004.00282.x

1474-919X

Graham R. Martin,

Aquatic Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Richard Liversidge died after a brief illness on 15 September 2003 just two days short of his 77th birthday. A combination of great energy, enthusiasm for all aspects of the natural world, an incisive mind, and an inclusive and liberal view of human affairs led Richard to make significant contributions both to the development of ornithology in southern Africa, and to the value and preservation of South Africa's important historical heritage. Although Richard's life is remembered here mainly for his contributions to ornithology, he was also regarded as one of the experts on the biology of Springbok, as an authority on the natural history of the Kalahari and as a community leader in his chosen home town of Kimberley. Richard was a man of lively conversation who would always find time to share his knowledge and enthusiasms with whoever he engaged. He was also a practical, resourceful and tenacious man, willing to turn his hand to any task in the field. These qualities, combined with great experience of travel in remote regions in southern Africa, made him an invaluable companion on any field trip, especially on trips into the desert and semidesert regions of Namibia and the Kalahari that he knew so well. Richard's practical nature reflected his early training as an engineer and then his early employment as a laboratory technician in the Zoology Department at the University of Cape Town where he worked part-time for five years for a degree in Biological Sciences (awarded 1955). He pursued his doctoral studies on The Reproductive Ecology of Cape Bulbuls (awarded by the University of Cape Town, 1971) at a field site near Port Elizabeth while employed as the Ornithologist at that city's Museum. Richard was born of English parents at Blantyre (Malawi) in September 1926. During his early life he moved many times with his family (India, Zambia, Mozambique, Kenya, Austria) before coming to England for early years’ schooling in Sussex and Surrey. In Sussex he became an enthusiastic birdwatcher, spending many hours wandering the heathlands of the Sussex Weald in pursuit of birds and their eggs. It must have been during this time that he developed his considerable critical observation skills that shaped his approach to ornithology. His ability and interest in identification through sound stayed with him throughout his life, and became a prominent feature of the three editions of Roberts’ Birds of Southern Africa that Richard co-authored with Geoff McLachlan between 1957 and 1978. His interest in bird vocalizations was last evident in his use of sonogram data in his descriptions of two new species of pipits, Long-tailed Pipit Anthus longicaudatus (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club116: 211–215, 1996) and Kimberley Pipit Anthus pseudosimilis (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club122: 93–108, 2002), which he first detected less than 400 m from his doorstep while on his early morning dog walks. As a technician in the UCT Biology Department Richard was mainly involved in research work in marine biology and spent much time in the field, visiting the mouths of all the South African rivers. However, during this time he became a founder member and first secretary of the Cape Bird Club, a post that he held for 9 years. Richard also joined the Council of the South African Ornithological Society. His ability to keep many balls in the air simultaneously reflected his diverse enthusiasms and great energy, qualities that stayed with him all his life. He took up his first post as an ornithologist at Port Elizabeth Museum in September 1956, and stayed there until 1964, during which time he published his first significant ornithological paper on the Little Sparrowhawk Accipiter minullus (Ibis104: 399–406, 1962). He also led a collecting expedition to the Okavango Delta and returned with the first examples of birds collected in that region during the summer months. This expedition was to have a considerable impact on Richard's contribution to the second revision of Roberts’ Birds of Southern Africa (published 1970). For that edition he drew heavily upon his own observations of behaviour, including vocalizations, as a crucial aspect of field identification characteristics. He took up the post of Director of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley in 1966, a post that he held for 20 years until his retirement in 1986. Richard seems really to have found his niche at the McGregor Museum and in Kimberley. The museum had a wide remit and Richard was able to push forward on many fronts simultaneously. He maintained his ornithological interests particularly through his field excursions into the Kalahari and he became the leading authority on the natural history of the region. In 1971 Richard published with Pamela Holliot a book on Ludwig Krebs, Naturalist to the King of Prussia. This combined Richard's great interests in natural history with his desire to understand the early history of the region and how knowledge of the wealth of its wildlife became known to the scientists and natural historians of Europe. His desire to bring bird knowledge to a wider audience is reflected in two books that Richard authored, The Rapid Bird Guide (1978) and The Birds Around Us (1991). In all, he published 80 scientific papers and about 40 articles in more popular journals. He attended all of the International Ornithological Congresses of the period and gave papers at most of them. Two areas of which ornithologists might not be aware were Richard's involvement with game management, particularly Springbok, and his work on developing the historical holdings of the McGregor Museum. The Springbok studies arose through his work as a consultant to the De Beers Mining Company, advising them on game management on their considerable land holdings in the region around Kimberley. This took Richard into many otherwise closed areas and allowed him to gather data particularly on Springbok growth rate and fertility over a 20-year time period. The huge dataset of over 20 000 records enabled Richard to show that Springbok appeared to predict the coming of the rains, producing their young at a time to coincide with the first fresh growth of grasses (South African J. Sci.80: 186, 1984). Richard gained the confidence of influential people in Kimberley and he was able to convince them of the need to conserve many of the historic buildings and sites of the region, especially those associated with the early boom years of the diamond fields. He was also actively involved in such societies as the Wildlife Society of South Africa, the Zoological Society of South Africa, and the Wildlife Management Association where he served as President. Under his direction the McGregor Museum grew considerably in size and influence. He included among his staff many people from the black community and broke an unwritten rule of the apartheid years when he ensured that his more highly qualified black staff were paid more than some of the white staff at the museum. This stance earned him great respect among the black community leaders and at the time of his death he was remembered in the city's newspapers as much as a liberal community leader as a historian and ornithologist. During his life Richard received many awards and was made an honorary life member of a number of organizations to which he had given service. Perhaps the one that brought him most satisfaction was his election to a Fellowship of the Linnean Society of London in 1994. Richard's final paper was published jointly with Oliver Kruger and Jan Lindstrom (J. Anim. Ecol.71: 603, 2002), just a few months before his death. That paper looked at the population dynamics of raptors in the Kalahari. It drew upon a long series of annual transect data that Richard had collected. Kruger had the necessary statistical skills to make full use of these data and Richard was delighted that his carefully collected, but old, data could suddenly be made useful again by a fresh brain. At the time of his death Richard was trying to make sense of Barlow's Lark (certhilauda barlowi), a recently described species from Namibia. He was struggling with the fundamental question of ‘what is a bird species?’, aware that the old certainties of the Biological Species Concept with which he had grown up were crumbling away. However, his approach was still field based and he spent 3 weeks in early 2003 camping in Namibia observing and sound recording these birds. Sadly he did not live long enough to answer his question about the status of Barlow's Lark.