Mike Imber

Michael "Mike" John Imber (born November 1940 in Banbury ; † April 28, 2011 in New Zealand ) was a New Zealand ornithologist of British origin. His research focus was the tubular noses (Procellariiformes).

Life

Imber was born in November 1940 during an air raid . After the war, he lived with his mother in Banffshire , north east Scotland , where he trained at Fordyce Academy and received an education certificate in 1958. Soon after, he emigrated to New Zealand with his mother and a brother. After studying for six years at Massey University in Wellington in the early 1960s, he earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree. He wrote his thesis on the topic of reproductive physiology of rodents in relation to population density . In 1965 Imber married Miriel Aitchison. From this marriage there were three children.

In January 1966 Imber was employed by the New Zealand Wildlife Service (since 1987 Department of Conservation ), where he worked until his retirement in 2006. Although he originally wanted to do a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington , he continued to work for the New Zealand Wildlife Service. In 1987, Imber received a PhD in natural sciences from Massey University for his extensive research on seabirds, and in particular on the origins, phylogeny and taxonomy of hook shearwater ( pterodroma ).

Imber initially devoted himself to studying the population dynamics of Canada geese . Research into the petrels began in 1968 with Gould-petrels on Whale Iceland . 1971 followed studies on the Cook petrels and the black petrels on Little Barrier Island . In 1979 Imber traveled to the Prince Edward Islands , where he was able to confirm the first successful breeding of the black-bellied sea creeper ( Fregetta tropica ) on Prince Edward Island , one of the group's little-visited islands. In the same year he also visited Gough Island in the South Atlantic as part of the South African National Antarctic Program , where he collected high-choked squid beaks around the nests of Tristan albatrosses ( Diomedea dabbenena ). This gathering of undigested cephalopod remains was an early technique used by Imber to determine the prey of petrels and albatrosses .

In 1981 Imber described the subspecies Procellaria leucoptera caledonica of the white-winged petrel and in 2001 with Alan JD Tennyson the Vanuatus petrel ( Pterodroma occulta ). In 1991 he classified the Jamaican petrel ( Pterodroma caribbea ) as a separate species, which was previously considered a color morph or a subspecies of the devil petrel ( Pterodroma hasita ).

Imber has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific articles. He has contributed to several books including The Readers Digest Book of Zealand Birds , Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, and Checklist of New Zealand Birds .

Dedication names

In 2015, Alan JD Tennyson, Lara D. Shepherd and JH Cooper named the extinct Imber Petrel ( Pterodroma imberi ) from the Chatham Islands in honor of Mike Imber.

literature

• William Richard Postle Bourne: Obituary: Michael John Imber (1940-2011) British Birds, 104, August 2011, p. 471
• CJR Robertson: Obituary - Michael John Imber (1940–2011) Notornis, 59 (1 & 2), 2012, pp. 90–95 (obituary and bibliography)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MJ Imber: The Jamaican Petrel - Dead or Alive? Gosse Bird Club Broadsheet 57, 1991, pp. 4-9.