Mountfort, Guy

Guy Mountfort was an English advertising executive, amateur ornithologist and conservationist. He is known for writing A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, published in 1954. In 1961 he created the World Wide Fund for Nature (then the World Wildlife Fund) with Victor Stolan, Sir Julian Huxley, Sir Peter Scott and Max Nicholson. In 1956 he led an expedition to the Coto Donana with the resulting Book Portrait of a Wilderness illustrated by Eric Hosking. In 1963 he led a party of naturalists which made the first ornithological expedition to Azraq in Jordan. The expedition's recommendations led to the creation of the Azraq Wetland Reserve and other protected areas. He was appointed an OBE in 1970, for services to ornithology. In 1972 he led the campaign to save the Bengal Tiger, persuading Indira Ghandi to create nine tiger reserves in India, with eight others in Nepal and Bangladesh