Obituary: Ian Prestt

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Someone once remarked that provided an Ian Prestt came along once in a while there was a modicum of hope for the human species. For here was a man of total integrity, with a simple philosophy of spending his life doing good, worthwhile things in t he natural world.

Prestt was a professional scientist with a passion for birds, not least for sparrowhawks and herons, and also for snakes, some of his earlier research being with adders on the Dorset heaths, whose scales he tampered with delicately so as to recognise individuals. By the accidental good fortune which moulds most successful careers, he developed a happy sequence gathering strength for the main task to come, as …