Christopher Miles Perrins, (born 11 May 1935) is

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

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of the

Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology The Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology (EGI), at Oxford University in England, is an academic body that conducts research in ornithology and the general field of evolutionary ecology and conservation biology, with an emphasis on under ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, Emeritus Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and His Majesty's Warden of the Swans since 1993.

Education

Perrins was educated at

Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...

and Queen Mary College where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in

Zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

in 1957. He completed his postgraduate study and research at the

where he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1963 for research on brood size in tits supervised by David Lack.

Research and career

Perrins research interests are in the population dynamics and breeding biology of birds, particularly tits (''Paridae''), mute swans and

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s on Skomer and Skokholm. He investigated animal lead poisoning of swans from lead shot. He is renowned for his work on avian

population ecology Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment (biophysical), environment, such as birth rate, birth and death rates, and by immigration an ...

and, in particular, reproductive rates. He has made a number of important contributions to the long-term study of the great tit at Wytham Woods — an area of mixed woodland established in 1947 by evolutionary biologist David Lack – one of the most famous studies in population ecology. He was the first to discover that avian clutch size – the number of eggs laid in a single nesting – in great tits has a remarkably high

heritability Heritability is a statistic used in the fields of Animal husbandry, breeding and genetics that estimates the degree of ''variation'' in a phenotypic trait in a population that is due to genetic variation between individuals in that population. T ...

and that the likelihood of the survival of young birds can be traced back to nutrition in the nest. Perrins also demonstrated that females lay a clutch of an appropriate size for their ability to feed. He supervised several successful DPhil students at Oxford including Matt Ridley and Tim Birkhead. According to

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, his most cited journal articles have been published in '' Ibis'', ''

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'', ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'' and the '' Journal of Animal Ecology''.

Publications

* ''British Tits''British Tits (1979) Collins New Naturalist Series * ''Encyclopedia of Birds'' * ''The Mute Swan''The Mute Swan (1986) Helm Field Guides, Birkhead M. Perrins C. * ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds: The Definitive Guide to Birds of the World:'' Christopher M. Perrins Hardline (1990) * ''Bird Population Studies: Relevance to Conservation and Management:'' (Oxford Ornithology Series) by Christopher M. Perrins, G. J. Hirons and J. D. Lebreton (1996) * ''The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume 1: Non-passerines'' David Snow, Christopher M. Perrins and Robert Gillmor (1998) Oxford University Press. * ''The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume 2:'' by David Snow, Christopher M. Perrins and Robert Gillmor (1998) Oxford University Press. * ''The New Encyclopedia of Birds:'' Editor, (2003) Oxford University Press. * ''The Complete Encyclopedia of Birds and Bird Migration:'' Jonathan Elphick: Christopher M. Perrins (2004)

Awards and honours

Perrins has received a number of awards for his research, including the Godman-Salvin Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union in 1988, and the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

(RSPB) Medal in 1992. In 1993, he was appointed as the first Warden of the Swans in the Royal Household, playing an important role in the annual Swan Upping ceremony. This was a new office in the Royal Household of the

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of the United Kingdom, created in 1993. Other awards and honours include: * American Ornithologists' Union: Corresponding Member, 1976, Fellow, 1983. * Deutschen Ornithologen-Gesellschaft: Corresponding Fellow, 1991, Life Fellow, 2001. *Nederlandse Ornithologische Unie: Life Fellow, 1992. * Elected an Honorary Fellow, Queen Mary; Westfield College in 1996 * Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1997 One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: * Union Medal of the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) in 2016, awarded for outstanding contribution to the BOU and ornithology. having served as President of the BOU from 2003 to 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrins, Christopher Miles 1935 births Living people 20th-century British biologists Presidents of the British Ornithologists' Union Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford Lieutenants of the Royal Victorian Order New Naturalist writers People educated at Charterhouse School Edward Grey Institute people