Juliet Vickery
Head of the International Research Section
RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science, UK
Follow Juliet on Twitter @juliet_vickery
Involved with the BOU as:
Vice President and chair of the Equality and Diversity working group
BOU member since: 1987
Most likely to be found . . .
. . . out on my bike!
What is your role on the BOU Council or committee on which you sit?
Vice President of the BOU and chair of the Equality and Diversity working group
What do you enjoy most about your involvement with the BOU?
Great meetings, a great journal and a very active and informative online presence means it feels like the ‘go to’ place for ornithologists and a great way to enter a unique network of like-minded people.
What would you say to anyone who is considering joining (or leaving!) the BOU?
Do it (and don’t). It provides a gateway to a whole world of interesting people and projects which you will be delighted to be part of and regret leaving.
What is your most memorable bird-y experience?
I will go with the most recent (at the time of writing) in Nov 2017: helping to catch and satellite tag five White Rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis in Nepal as part of a recovery programme for this critically endangered species. They will serve as ‘controls’ for the first captive birds to be released into an area now believed to be a ‘vulture safe zone’. Closer to home: seeing the first ever British breeding, satellite tagged, Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur return back to its breeding grounds in Suffolk having gone all the way to Mali and back.
What is your favourite outdoor place and why?
Up a mountain pretty much anywhere but the remoter the better.
What do you predict to be the future big research areas in ornithology?
Increased revelations from novel tracking technology and collection and application of ‘big data’.
If you could visit anywhere in the world, that you haven’t yet been to, where would it be and why?
Gough Island, South Atlantic: a global headquarters for seabirds but one where nesting birds face the ravages of introduced mice. The RSPB has been working there for over 10 years, I have written grants for the work, recruited field teams and reviewed the results but never set foot on this extraordinary island. Logistics mean it is unlikely I will ever get there but, if all this work eventually culminates in eradicating the mice and restoring this oceanic gem, the pictures will be good enough.
What are the big conservation challenges in the next decade?
Balancing the agenda between conservation and poverty and delivering on goals we have set under multilateral agreements such as the Aichi targets, under the CBD, and Sustainable Development Goals. It will require Governments, businesses and people caring about, and valuing, the world in which we live and that’s something in which we can all play a role to achieve.