Professor Carl Jones, conservation biologist

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

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Summary

Professor Carl Jones is a conservation biologist who is best known for saving the Mauritius kestrel from extinction. He is the scientific director of Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, chief scientist at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and an honorary professor in ecology and conservation biology at the University of East Anglia.

He was born in Carmarthen in Wales and was fascinated with animals from an early age, rearing rescued common kestrels, owls and hawks in his back garden. He studied biology at North-East London Polytechnic and, after learning about the plight of the Mauritius kestrel, he was determined to go out to the country to try to save the bird.

He arrived in Mauritius in 1979 when there were only two known breeding pairs left in the wild. By the time he left in 1999 he’d established a captive breeding programme and today hundreds of Mauritius kestrels fly over the islands where he spent decades pioneering his, sometimes controversial, methods. Today the Mauritius kestrel is the national bird.

He is also responsible for saving from extinction three species of reptiles, a fruit bat and several plants.

He was appointed an MBE for his work in 2004 and in 2016 he won the prestigious Indianapolis Prize – the world’s leading award for animal conservation.

Carl lives in Carmarthen with his wife and two children and assorted animals including two Andean condors called Carlos and Baby.

DISC ONE: Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf Opus 67 - The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult DISC TWO: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Narrated by Richard Burton and performed by Meredith Edwards, Gwenllian Owen and Gwenyth Petty DISC THREE: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Ian Dury DISC FOUR: La Rivière Noire - John Kenneth Nelson DISC FIVE: Asimbonanga - Johnny Clegg & Savuka DISC SIX: Sega lakordeon – Rene oule bwar mwa - La Troupe de l’Union DISC SEVEN: Londonderry Air - Beatrice Harrison DISC EIGHT: Clear Sky - Catrin Finch

BOOK CHOICE: The Collected Works of Dylan Thomas LUXURY ITEM: Binoculars CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Asimbonanga - Johnny Clegg & Savuka

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:35.0	check out BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:41.3	Hello, I'm Lauren Levern and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
0:45.3	Every week I ask my guest to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:50.3	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:53.3	And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:58.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
1:26.2	Music My castaway this week is the award-winning conservation biologist Professor Carl Jones.
1:29.0	He's one of the most successful conservationists in the world, best known for saving the Mauritius Kestrel from extinction. The roll call of other
1:34.4	creatures he has brought back from the brink include the evocatively named Echo Parakeet, Gunther's Gecko,
1:40.5	the orange-tailed skink and the Round Island boa. Not only has he revived their populations,
1:46.7	he's rebuilt entire ecosystems, sometimes using controversial means. He started out as a teenage
1:53.3	ornithologist, rearing rescued common kestrels, owls and hawks in his back garden in Comarthenshire.
1:59.8	When he first heard about the plight of
2:01.5	the Mauritius Kestrel, the world's most endangered bird, he decided he would go there and use
2:06.5	what he knew to rescue the species. By the time he arrived in Mauritius in 1979, there were
2:12.2	only two known breeding pairs left in the wild. Thanks to his work, hundreds of Mauritius Kestrels now fly freely
	...

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