Norman W. Moore

Norman Winfred Moore (born 24 February 1923) is a British conservationist and author who has worked extensively on studies of dragonflies and their habitats.

The son of Sir Alan Hilary Moore, 2nd Baronet Hancox,^[1] Moore was educated at Eton College, then at Trinity College, Cambridge University. He graduated during World War II, and then served in the Royal Artillery in the last two years of the war, reaching the rank of Lieutenant. He saw action in Germany and Holland, was wounded, and became a prisoner of war.^[2][3]

After the war he married (in 1950) and studied for a PhD at Bristol University, being awarded the doctorate in 1954. His PhD thesis was on agonistic behaviour. His career in conservation started at this time in the 1950s, and he was a scientific officer for Nature Conservancy (later the Nature Conservancy Council) in various roles, including that of Chief Advisory Officer, until 1983. From 1979 to 1983, he was also Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies at Wye College, which was then part of the University of London. Moore is a founding member of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG),^[4] and is also a vice-president of the British Association of Nature Conservationists.

His work at the Nature Conservancy included studies of the effects of toxic chemicals on wildlife, in particular the adverse effect of organochlorine pesticides on raptors. It was his work on dragonflies and conservation that led to him coining the term "the birdwatcher's insect", aiming to raise public interest in the role of insect monitoring in ecosystem conservation. Due to his background in dragonfly research and conservation, Moore was invited to chair the Odonata specialist group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. This international group first met in 1980, and produced an Action Plan in 1995, which was published in 1997.^[5]

Moore contributed to two books in the New Naturalist series: Dragonflies (1960) and Hedges (1974), and his book on nature conservation, The Bird of Time (1987), won the Natural World Book of the Year award. Moore is also an Honorary Fellow of the Linnean Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, which also made him the inaugural recipient of the Marsh Entomological Award for Insect Conservation. Moore has also received the Stamford Raffles Award from the Zoological Society of London for his "distinguished contribution to the ecology and behaviour of dragonflies".^[6]

In 2003, a festschrift issue of Odonatologica, the journal of the Societas Internationalis Odonatologica, was published to mark Moore's 80th birthday.^[7] This included a biography and a bibliography of his works. Several other tributes appeared around this time, including, in July 2004, a special tribute issue of the International Journal of Odonatology, titled "Guardians of the Watershed: Global Status of Dragonflies". The British Dragonfly Society administers an award in Moore's honour, called the 'Norman Moore Award Fund'.^[8] In addition to this, several species of dragonflies and damselflies are named after Moore.^[9]

Selected publications

• Dragonflies (1960), with P.S. Corbet and Cynthia Longfield
• Hedges (1974), with E. Pollard and M. D. Hooper
• The Bird of Time - the science and politics of nature conservation (1987)
• Dragonflies: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan (1997)
• Oaks, Dragonflies and People (2002)

References

1. ^ Moore is also the grandson of the doctor and medical historian Norman Moore, 1st Baronet Hancox. Although Moore has established his claim to the baronetcy, he does not use the title.
2. ^ Dr. Norman Winfrid Moore, thePeerage.com, accessed 10 May 2009
3. ^ MOORE, (Sir) Norman Winfrid, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008, accessed 9 May 2009
4. ^ Biography in review of Oaks, Dragonflies and People, Ananzi Books, accessed 10 May 2009
5. ^ Global protection of Odonata and their habitats: a tribute to Norman W. Moore, Corbet, P.S., International Journal of Odonatology, Volume 7 (2004), 112
6. ^ Biography in review of Oaks, Dragonflies and People, Ananzi Books, accessed 10 May 2009
7. ^ Norman Winfrid Moore, Moore, J., Odonatologica, Journal of the Societas Internationalis Odonatologica, Volume 32, Issue 1, 2003, p. 9-18
8. ^ Conservation and Research Grants, British Dragonfly Society, accessed 28 May 2011
9. ^ Examples include Drepanosticta moorei (see Drepanosticta)

External links

• Norman Moore (biography page at newnaturalists.com)

Persondata
Name	Moore, Norman Winfred
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Date of birth	24 February 1923
Place of birth
Date of death
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