Nature Features

Peter Scott was born on the 14th September 1909 in London, godson of playwright J.M. Barrie and son of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who died when Peter was only two.

Peter originally read Natural Sciences in Cambridge, but graduated in the history of Art in 1931. His artistic talents later led to his design of a panda as the logo for the World Wide Fund for Nature, of which he was a founder member.

During World War II, Scott served in the Royal Navy, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bravery.

According to Lady Scott, when Peter returned from war, he was very keen to do something to protect threatened species, and so it was that in 1946 he founded the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge.

Flamingos at Slimbridge

Click on the following link to listen to Lady Scott speaking to BBC Gloucestershire's Trish Campbell:

Over sixty years on, the trust is the only UK charity with a national network of nine specialist wetland visitor centres, and is the home to the world's largest collection of swans, geese, and ducks.

It is also the only place in the world where you can see all six species of Flamingo.

Click below to find out what the Ward family from Cinderford make of the Slimbridge WWT experience:

Peter went on to lead several ornithological expeditions worldwide, popularised the study of wildfowl and wetlands through his television appearances, and his pioneering work in conservation also contributed greatly to the shift in policy of the International Whaling Commission and signing of the Antarctic Treaty.

He is also credited with naming the Loch Ness Monster 'Nessiteras Rhombopteryx' so that it could be registered as an endangered species.

Based on Greek, the name apparently means 'the wonder of Ness with the diamond shaped fin', but is also an anagram of 'Monster hoax by Sir Peter S'!

Heron in flight

Peter sadly passed away in 1989, but will always be alive in the heart of the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust here in Gloucestershire.

Click below for a full picture gallery of the wildfowl at Slimbridge, taken by site user Robin Ward from Cinderford: