Turtle conservationist Peter Pritchard dies at 76

Feb 27, 2020 News

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Florida zoologist Peter Charles Howard Pritchard, whose turtle and tortoise conservation brought international acclaim, and whose persona was of a dashing and ceaselessly curious academic, died Tuesday night in hospice care at age 76.

Pritchard has been hailed by the Guyana Marine Conservation Society as playing a pioneering role in the country’s sea turtle conservation program, with Shell Beach protection also a testimony. In fact, his wife is Guyanese.
According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Pritchard’s Chelonian Research Institute in Oviedo contains one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of its kind. The University of Florida doctoral graduate had been named a Hero of the Planet by Time magazine and a Floridian of the Year by the Orlando Sentinel.
While ill during the past few years, Pritchard was visited by a steady stream of his former students traveling from around the world for a last conversation with their mentor.
“Chimpanzees have Jane Goodall. Mountain gorillas had the late Dian Fossey. And the world’s turtles and tortoises have Dr. Peter Pritchard,” wrote University of Southern California biological anthropologist Craig B. Stanford in his 2010 book “The Last Tortoise, A Tale of Extinction in Our Lifetime.”
A 2008 Orlando Sentinel story characterized Pritchard and his wife of nearly 50 years, civic activist and volunteer Sibille Hart Pritchard, as a Central Florida power couple.

The story described Pritchard as “6-foot-4, an Oxford-educated Brit raised in Ireland, who became an international conservationist accustomed to living on nuts and berries during expeditions” and his wife as “5-foot-3 and a native of Guyana, though one friend describes her as a ‘one-woman United Nations.’ Her family tree includes Portuguese, Chinese, East Indian, Arawak Indian, African, Jewish and Texan ancestors.”
Sibille Pritchard on Wednesday cited her husband as her “strength and my soulmate.”
“The influence he’s had on colleagues, students and friends is a testament to his brilliance as a scientist and his kindness as a man. The lives he touched and the difference he made in the world of environmental conservation made our home here in Florida a global gathering place where people from all over the world became part of our lives. Together, we’ve had an amazing journey, raised three incredible men and shared experiences of a lifetime,” she said.
In the 1960s, Pritchard earned his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Florida. While there, he studied with the late Archie Carr, whose legacy in sea turtle research and conservation was recognized by the naming of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Brevard and Indian River counties.
Pritchard went on to work with the World Wildlife Fund, spending four years there before joining Audubon Florida in 1973 as assistant executive director, senior vice president and acting president.
“I grew up learning from Peter in the early 1970s,” said Audubon Florida’s advocacy director Charles Lee.
“He was a scientist’s scientist with heart and mind focused on protection of the natural world. He developed an innate sense of practical innovation to save species on the brink. While his primary expertise was turtles and tortoises, he was a respected adviser on panthers and birds as well. A true Renaissance man of the biosciences,” Lee said.
In 1997, he founded the Chelonian Research Institute in Oviedo. The institute’s collection of more than 14,000 specimens spans nearly 95 percent of all living turtle and tortoise species.
According to institute records, Pritchard traveled to more than 100 countries for field work with turtles in all continents and many remote islands. Several species of turtles are named after him and his lists of writings, including 14 books, speaking engagements and leadership roles are extensive.
In addition to Pritchard’s many honours, he was recognized as a Champion of the Wild by the Discovery Television Channel.
Pritchard developed and emphasized an approach of “conservation without confrontation.”
The zoologist also made his mark in having expertise with sea turtles, tortoises and freshwater turtles, resulting in Pritchard being the only person earning the John Behler Award for turtle conservation and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sea Turtle Society.
Pritchard’s fame grew largely from his worldwide research and conservation efforts. But his Florida work was deep and technical, including working with Audubon’s famed and now-late Herbert W. Kale on bird research in the state.
Along with his wife, Pritchard is survived by two sons, Sebastian and Cameron, and was preceded in death by son, Dominic.

 

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