Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Paul Alexander Zino, 1916–2004

2004; Wiley; Volume: 146; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1474-919x.2004.00315.x

1474-919X

Bernard Zonfrillo,

Marine and fisheries research

On 3 March 2004 Madeiran wildlife lost its greatest champion and many lost a good friend. Born on 9 February 1916 on the Portuguese island of Madeira, Alec Zino was educated in England at St Edmund's College, Ware, and then graduated in Languages at Christ's College Cambridge before returning to Madeira. There, he worked for his family's property businesses and later began a life-long interest in the wildlife of the remote Atlantic archipelago. In 1963 he made the second of many visits to the Selvagem Islands – part of the Madeira archipelago but in closer proximity to the Spanish Canary Islands. This ignited an interest in seabirds and the Procellariiformes in particular. Witnessing the annual ‘harvest’ of Cory's Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea by fishermen on the islands, he was determined to end the slaughter and a few years later he bought out the hunting rights to the islands. To promote further studies of the birds on the islands he built a house on Selvagem Grande in 1967 and, typical of his kindness, employed many of the fishermen, now relieved of their hunting rights, to help construct the building. In 1971 he organized the sale of the islands to the WWF, but the Portuguese Government forbade the sale and bought the islands themselves, but failed to warden them. In 1974 there was a revolution in Portugal and in 1976 the same fishermen, inspired by the military coup and general lawlessness on the islands, sought revenge for the loss of their ‘tradition’ by slaughtering almost every bird they could find and completely ‘trashed’ the Zino house. The publicity derived from this appalling vandalism persuaded the local and national government of Portugal to take a more active role in wildlife protection. With Portugal's later membership of the EC, all wildlife directives were readily embraced and the islands quickly gained National Park status with the founding of the Parque Natural da Madeira in 1986. Before that incident, however, in 1969 a perhaps more sinister event had taken place when the breeding site of Pterodroma madeira had been re-discovered. Again Alec played a major role. In Madeira the ‘Freiras’ were known as two subspecies of Pterodroma mollis, the Soft-Plumaged Petrel of the south Atlantic, but are now, thanks largely to his work, regarded as full species. The whereabouts of the breeding site of P. madeira had long been lost to living memory ever since Padre Schmitz left the islands in 1908. That the birds still existed was verified on the rare occasion (1940 and 1951) when a bird would be found having come to grief on its first flight. The ‘Freiras’ on the island of Bugio, P. feae, were a different case – well known but in unknown numbers on the furthest and steepest of the Deserta Islands from Madeira. Alec Zino had made studies of the Bugio birds and recorded their calls and reasoned that the birds on mainland Madeira might have similar calls. He contacted some local shepherds from the village of Curral das Freiras and enlisted their help, playing the tape-recorded calls to them. They were told that on no account must they harm any birds should they be found. One of the shepherds, Lucas, instantly recognized the calls he had heard at night at one particular place. In May 1969 with friends, Lucas examined a high ledge below which he had heard calls, finding burrows but no eggs, young or adults. A few days later, while Alec was on a trip to the Selvagens, Lucas went to report the discovery of eggs and birds in the nests. A French ornithologist, who was meant to have accompanied Alec to the Selvagens, but had missed the boat, was in Alec's office and overheard the conversation. On the day Alec returned to Funchal, the cleric had paid the shepherds to take him to the spot where by this time breeding had commenced and eight birds and six eggs were dug out. The Frenchman unbelievably wanted to kill all the birds – the only ones known to exist – but was persuaded by Alec who raced to the site when he heard what was happening, to release six and keep two eggs. There were no specific laws protecting the birds in 1969, so it was down to Alec Zino to try to make the individual concerned see sense. To add insult to injury another bird and an egg were mysteriously collected a few days later; information revealed some time after the event. Two of the birds are now in the collection of the Natural History Museum in Paris where they will forever bear testament to an incident of unpardonable ignorance. In more recent times studies by Alec and his son Frank Zino showed that rats were getting to the ledges and presented a major threat to the species. Nowadays, with rats and cats largely under control, the future looks considerably brighter for Europe's rarest seabird. A few years ago W.R.P. Bourne, when sorting out the muddle of names for the Pterodromas of Madeira proposed ‘Zino's Petrel’ for P. madeira and there is surely no better accolade for their champion. Alec Zino's natural history interests covered all species from birds and butterflies to seals. By planting American Milkweed in a Funchal Park he enticed some of the many wind-blown Monarch butterflies to breed on the island, which they still do to this day. He also remembered when the Desertas had a green grassy top and pine trees and, when a young man, filmed the historic hand harpooning of Sperm Whales by taking an oar on the whaler. An excellent photographer and sound-recordist, Alec was a quietly spoken man but always with time for visiting ornithologists. Outside of ornithology he successfully set up an orphanage for local children in times when the State played little part in such organizations. His claim to be ‘a quarter Scottish – hence the “Alec”’ made my meetings with him and his wife Yvonne always convivial. I last saw him in September 2000 in Funchal when attending a conference on shearwaters. Despite his growing disability he came along and was keen to speak with as many participants as time would allow. His charming wife, Yvonne, four children and ten grandchildren survive him. In 1988 he was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the UK Minister for Agriculture for his conservation work. Honoured by both his country and his Island, if the Union awards medals posthumously then Paul Alexander Zino should be a recipient. Those who met him will testify that they were in the company of a truly great ornithologist.