Paul Alexander Zino

Paul Alexander Zino

Paul Alexander Zino (9 February 1916 – 3 March 2004) was a British ornithologist after whom Zino's petrel (Pterodroma madeira) is named.

Zino was born in Madeira, but educated in England at St. Edmund's College, Ware, and Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1963, he took part in an expedition to the Savage Islands. Returning in 1967, Zino built a house and began studying the breeding biology of Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris borealis). This led to the governmental protection of the birds and the inclusion of the islands in the Madeira Natural Park in 1986.

Zino also visited the Desertas Islands, studying the Fea's petrel (Pterodroma feae). This led to an interest in the smaller P. madeira which had first been discovered in 1903 on Madeira itself. Zino managed to rediscover the location of the colony and protect it.

References

• Obituary of Zino in The Telegraph