User:Willsco34/Jemima Parry-Jones

Jemima Parry-Jones MBE, born Jemima Glasier on March 6th 1949 in Salisbury, Wiltshire in the UK is a world authority on birds of prey (raptors), a conservationist, author, world leading breeder, lecturer, consultant and is the Director of the International Centre for Birds of Prey. In June 1999 she was awarded an MBE in the Queens Birthday Honours List for Services to Bird Conservation.

Biography
Parry-Jones lived in Salisbury until the age of five before moving to Barford St Martin. After one year, the family moved again this time to North Kessock on the Black Isle in Scotland. She lived there for three years and then moved again with family to Melbury Osmond in Dorset where the family stayed until they bought Boulsdon House in Newent Gloucestershire in 1966 and moved there to start a Falconry Centre.

Parry-Jones attended Bellairs Drama School in Guildford for a two year Musical Theatre Course and then three years at the Royal Academy of Music, where singing  was her first study, and the piano her second study (although she usually describes it as her 95th study!).

She has always had an abiding passion for wildlife and animals in general, with music, reading and Labrador dogs coming a close second. She always wanted to be an opera singer, but had a voice more suited to oratorio, and constantly her nerves let her down in public performance. Moreover  wherever she went she collected livestock, so in the end she gave up the unequal struggle and took to a life with birds of prey.

She worked with the family to start the Falconry Centre and continued to worked there for her parents for some 13 years at which point she moved away to Brookwood in Surrey to marry Joylon Parry-Jones.

In 1982 the couple moved back to Newent to take over and run the Falconry Centre. Her husband left around 1990 but Jemima stayed on and continued to run what was by then the National Birds of Prey Centre.

After some 22 years of running the centre Parry-Jones took the momentous decision to sell the centre and move the centre's 189 birds and 6 dogs, lock, stock and barrel to the USA.

She left the UK in November 2004 with 189 birds of prey belonging to her, to merge with another group of raptor specialists in South Carolina. She went believing that she was to jointly head up a new bright and forward-moving centre that would lead the world in all aspects of raptor management and conservation and give her more to work on in terms of her career.

Unfortunately over the intervening period of her arrival with the birds, the Executive Director and the Board reneged on the agreement of a merger, not allowing her to share the leadership but instead giving her a subordinate role, leaving her no choice but to return to the UK. Consequently in June 2007 JPJ with 169 of her birds and her beloved dogs returned to the UK.

At the end of 2008 when facing the loss of everything she had ever worked for, she managed with enormous help from the Chenevix-Trench family and Lloyds Bank to buy back her old Centre and the family house with the aim of getting it back to its proper status as the best known, and most important birds of prey centre world wide, to be called the International Centre for Birds of Prey.

The ICBP opened its gates to the public on February 1st 2009 with a skeleton staff and a bird collection that had gone through quite some traumas during the moves to and from the USA – many of the birds had lost flying condition – but since the opening, the centre (and the birds) has gone from strength to strength.

Directorships and Management Roles
2008 - :Director International Centre for Birds of Prey, Newent, Gloucestershire, UK.

2006 - 2007: Consultant,South Carolina Center for Birds of Prey/Avian Conservation Center,Senior Research Assistant, National Aviary Pittsburgh.

2004 - 2006: International Director of the ICBP in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

1983 - 2004: Director and owner of the National Birds of Prey Centre(NBPC.

2000 - present: Founder and founding trustee of The National Birds of Prey Trust.

2000 - present: Currently on the team working with the three critically endangered Gyps vultures in India and Nepal as a consultant in management and design of         captive breeding facilities, and assisting with collection of birds and the training of in situ staff.

2004 - 2007: and 2001-2004: and 1998-2001: and 1994-1996: International Director of the Raptor Research Foundation Inc, USA and Canada (4 terms of office).

1999 - 2004: First Chair of the Zoo Forum - a three-year Government appointment. Re-appointed in 2002 for a further three years but resigned owing to emigration.

1984 - 2004: Voluntary government(DEFRA)wildlife inspector.

2000 - 2004: Trustee of the Hawk and Owl Trust.

2001 - 2003: and 1995 - 2001: Chair of the Hawk Board - liaison body between raptor keepers and HM government Vice Chair of The Hawk Board.

1996 - 2003: Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) Chair for Falconiformes and Strigiformes, EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.

2000 - 2003: Council Representative on the Federation of Zoos.

1994 - 2003: Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) Chair for Falconiformes - Federation of Zoos.

September 2002: Co-chair of the vulture workshop at the joint conference of AUO, RRF, Wilson Society, Cooper Society in New Orleans.

September 2001: Chair of the Vulture workshop at the 4th International Raptor Research Foundation Conference in Seville. Co-chair of the Captive Breeding and Veterinary Aspects workshop.

1998: International Convener on a Trade in Endangered Species workshop at the World Conference on Birds of Prey held in South Africa.

Conference & Scientific Papers
2008: The race to prevent the extinction of South Asian vultures. Pain, Bowden, Cunningham, Cuthbert, Das, Gilbert, Jakati, Jhala, Khan, Naidoo, Oaks, Parry-Jones, Prakash, Rahmani, Ranade, Sagar Baral, Ram Senscha, Saravanan, Shah, Swan, Swarup, Taggart, Watson, Virani, Wolter, and R Green.

2008: Bird Conservation International (2008) 18:S30–S48. _ BirdLife International 2008 doi: 10.1017/S0959270908000324 Printed in the United Kingdom.

2006: NSAIDS and Scavenging Birds: potential impacts beyond Asia’s Critically Endangered Vultures. Cuthbert, Parry-Jones, Green, Pain. Biology Letters.

2006: Toxicity of diclofenac to Gyps Vultures. Gerry E. Swan, Richard Cuthbert, Miguel Quevedo, Rhys E. Green, Deborah J. Pain, Paul Bartels, Andrew A. Cunningham, Neil Duncan, Andrew A. Meharg, J. Lindsay Oaks, Jemima Parry-Jones, Susanne Shultz, Mark A. Taggart, Gerhard Verdoorn, Kerri Wolter (2006) Biology Letters, 2: 279-282. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2005.0425.

2003: Causes and Effects of Temporospatial Declines of Gyps Vultures in Asia. D. J. Pain, A.A. Cunningham, P. F. Donald, .J.W. Duckworth, D. C. Houston, T. Katzner, J. Parry-Jones, C. Poole, V. Prakash, P. Round, R. Timmins Conservation Biology Volume 17, No. 3, June 2003

2001: The Parsi’s and the vulture crisis. RRF’s Fourth International Conference on Raptors. Seville, Spain.

1996: Sustained Captive Breeding. RRF’s International Conference on Raptors. University of Urbino, Italy.

1996: Overview of Raptor Rehabilitation in UK. RRF’s International Conference on Raptors. University of Urbino, Italy.

1993: Human conflicts with raptors. First European Conference of the Raptor Research Foundation. University of Kent.

1991: Breeding African Pygmy Falcons in Captivity. The Small Falcon Conference. Hawk and Owl Trust University of Kent.

1990: Breeding Birds of Prey in View of the Public. Raptor Research Foundation Conference. Allan Town Pennsylvania USA.

1989: The Ethics of Raptor Rehabilitation Rehabilitation Conference. The Hawk and Owl Trust. London Zoo.

1988: Basic Incubation and Rearing. The Goshawk Workshop The Hawk Board Birmingham University.

1985: Managed Production of Captive Birds of Prey. Captive Breeding Conference Bristol University.

Video / DVD Presentations
1990 Captive Breeding. Written and presented by Parry-Jones, J. Directed by Barry Eyre WCP Videos, Leics.

1990 Owls. Written and presented by Parry-Jones, J. Directed by Barry Eyre WCP Videos, Leics.

1989 Understanding Falconry. Written and presented by Parry-Jones, J. Directed by William Clarke WCP Videos, Leics.

Publications
2008: BSAVA Manual of Raptors, Pigeons and Passerine Birds. Contributor Jemima Parry-Jones MBE. Editors John Chitty, Michael Leirz, British Small Animal Veterinary     Association UK.

2007: Raptor Research & Management Techniques. Editors David M Bird, Keith L. Bildstein. Contributor Jemima Parry-Jones MBE. Hancock House Publishers USA.

2004: Management and Welfare Guidelines for Strigiformes. Parry-Jones. J. Federation of Zoos, London.

2004: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Contributor Jemima Parry-Jones MBE. Gale Group.

2001: Animal. Burnie, David. Contributor Jemima Parry-Jones MBE Dorling Kindersley.

1999: Birds of Prey Kerrod, Robin Consultant. Jemima Parry-Jones MBE. Lonrenze Books, USA.

1999: The Really Useful Owl Guide. Parry-Jones, J. TFH Kingdom Books.

1999: Management and Welfare Guidelines for Falconiformes. Parry-Jones, J. Federation of Zoos, London.

1998: Understanding Owls. Parry-Jones. David and Charles, Newton Abbot.

1997: Eye Witness Eagle. Parry-Jones. Dorling Kindersley, London.

1996: Management Guidelines for Flying Demonstration Birds Parry-Jones. Federation of Zoos, London.

1994: Training Birds of Prey Parry-Jones. David and Charles, Newton Abbot.

1993: Breeding African Pygmy Falcons in Captivity Parry-Jones. Nicholls M K and Clarke R (Eds.)

1990: Amazing Birds of Prey Parry-Jones, J Dorling Kindersley, London.

1989: Birds of Prey Parry-Jones. National Birds of Prey Centre, Newent.

1987: Falconry, Care Captive Breeding and Conservation Parry-Jones, J David and Charles Newton Abbot.

1988: Basic Incubation and Rearing Parry-Jones.

1988: The Goshawk Workshop. Parry-Jones.(Ed). Proceedings of The Hawk Board Conference, Birmingham University.

1985: Managed Production of Captive Birds of Prey Parry-Jones. Hill, D (Ed) Proceedings of Captive Breeding Conference, Bristol University.