What happened next on the island of the dodo is a source of inspiration in an age of extinction. Since 1970, humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles, according to WWF, and one in eight bird species are threatened with global extinction. But Jones rescued the kestrel from oblivion, increasing its numbers a hundredfold, before going on to save more species than probably any other individual. Now the chief scientist at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the charity founded by Gerald Durrell, he has preserved many plant species and nine animals, including four other bird species that numbered fewer than 12 known wild individuals: the pink pigeon, the echo parakeet, the Rodrigues fody and the Rodrigues warbler. The 64-year-old has won the Indianapolis prize – the conservationists’ Oscars – but he is not an international celebrity, perhaps because his thinking challenges the conservation establishment.
