Debbie Pain on conserving globally threatened bird species

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Professor Debbie Pain has spent the last 30 years solving some of the most devastating threats to birdlife, saving many species from the brink of extinction. Her childhood passion for bird spotting drove her into conservation research with the RSPB and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. She’s led scientific groundwork all over the planet: from reversing a dramatic mysterious decline in Asian vultures in the Indian sub-continent through to daring helicopters journeys into remote foggy North-East Russia in a bid to locate and conserve eggs of a hugely charismatic and threatened bird - the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. And as she tells Jim, her career defining research into one of the great hidden threats to birdlife - the toxic effect of billions of spent lead shot used to catch game birds - is finally turning the tide on attitudes to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of wildfowl. Producer Adrian Washbourne

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about.
0:35.2	So if you fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	Welcome to the podcast of the Life Scientific.
0:43.0	BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:48.0	My guest today is a pioneer in uncovering and solving
0:52.0	some of the greatest invisible threats to our bird life
0:54.8	both at home and abroad. When conservationist Debbie Payne began her career
1:00.0	over a hundred thousand swans ducks and geese were dying each year in the UK
1:06.0	due to ingesting toxic lead shot pellets.
1:09.0	But her scientific research to understand and mitigate the risks to wildlife and humans from poisoning
1:15.0	by lead from ammunition has now started to have a very real impact in tackling that
1:20.1	worrying statistic. She modestly says she's no exceptional scientist, but she's great
1:26.0	at finding the best people to work with. She's spearheaded international research with the
1:31.2	RSPB and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, traveling the world to deliver
1:36.0	conservation action on the ground to save many threatened bird species from extinction,
	...

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