Stewart McPherson (geographer)

Stewart R. McPherson (born 1983) is a British geographer, field biologist, nature photographer, and writer.[1][2]

Background

McPherson graduated in geography at the University of Durham in England, and studied briefly at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and Yale University in the United States.[1] On graduation in 2006 he founded Redfern Natural History Productions in Poole, Dorset to conduct natural history research, publishing, filming and eco-tours.[3]

Work in natural history

McPherson is the author of around 20 volumes published by his own company and concerned with natural history, largely focusing on carnivorous plants. He has co-discovered a number of species (including the much publicised Nepenthes attenboroughii) and has formally described around 35 carnivorous plant taxa.[4] He is a member of the IUCN SSC Carnivorous Plant Specialist Group.[2] He documented each species in full detail in its natural habitat, taking seven years with many expeditions in the tropics of Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. Over time he has transitioned into TV presenter and natural history writer.[5][6]

He set up "Ark of Life" to conserve species on the brink of extinction, initially carnivorous plant groups.

Television presenting

McPherson has appeared in several documentaries, including a conservation documentary on the lost world tepui sandstone plateaux of southern Venezuela and the borderlands of northern Brazil and western Guyana. A 2011 documentary Mountain with No Name was set on Palawan in the Philippines, where he discovered new species of flesh eating plants on a previously unexplored mountain. An earlier 2010 film documented the discovery of Nepenthes leonardoi.

His most recent series for the BBC was "Britain's Treasure Islands", a series of three episodes in which he visits all of Britain's 14 overseas territories, travelling 70,000 km in the process. Working with cameraman Simon Vacher, he discussed the natural history of each location and history of British settlement. In British Antarctica and South Georgia he retraced the expedition of Ernest Shackleton, and made a rare visit to the Chagos Archipelago and Pitcairn Island. The series was filmed in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and broadcast on BBC Four in 2016.[7]

Awards

Published work

References

  1. 1 2 McPherson, S.R. 2009. Pitcher Plants of the Old World. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole.
  2. 1 2 3 Stewart McPherson receives new Plant Conservation Award. IUCN World Conservation Congress, September 13, 2012.
  3. ↑ http://www.redfernnaturalhistory.com/
  4. ↑ Miles, J. 2012. Discovering a lost world of rat-eating plants in the Philippines. Friday, October 9, 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.redfernnaturalhistory.com/about/meet-stewart-mcpherson/
  6. ↑ http://blog.nhbs.com/title-information/pitcher-plants-of-the-old-world-an-interview-with-stewart-mcpherson/
  7. ↑ BBC - Britain's Treasure Islands
  8. ↑ Rice, B. 2012. Book review. Carnivorous Plant Newsletter 41(2): 83–87.
  9. ↑ Fay, M.F. 2011. Carnivorous plants and their habitats. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 165(4): 439–440. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2011.01120.x
  10. ↑ Bond, D. 2008. Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands. Victorian Carnivorous Plant Society Inc. 89: 14–15.
  11. ↑ Les, D.H. "Book review: Pitcher Plants of the Americas, Stewart McPherson." (PDF). Aquatic Botany 87(3): 251–253. doi:10.1016/j.aquabot.2007.05.001
  12. ↑ McPherson, S. 2006. "New carnivorous plant publication and conservation project." (PDF). Victorian Carnivorous Plant Society Inc. 81: 6–8.
  13. ↑ IPNI.  S.McPherson.

External links

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