Dick Potts

Dr. George Richard Potts (6 December 1939 – 30 March 2017), known as Dick, was an internationally renowned ecologist and conservationist. He was a specialist in the partridge. He is primarily associated with the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (then known as the Game Conservation Trust) for which he started many successful conservation projects.

Biography

Early years Dick Potts was raised in North Yorkshire on a farm where he learned first hand about the interaction between wildlife and farming. Initially, 62 square kilometers of farmland in Sussex, England was used for the project. The project focused on mortality among grey partridge chicks and tracked among other things the populations of various invertebrates that make up the diet of these young birds. In 1974 Dick Potts, together with entomologist Paui Vickerman, published “Studies on the Cereal Ecosystem" based on the work done in the project. The Partridge Survival Project became known as the Sussex Study.

Others Cereal and Gamebirds Project (Conservation headland) Salisbury Plain Experiment Joint Raptor Project

Publications

Studies on the Cereal Ecosystem 1974 The Partridge. Pesticides, Predation and Conservation 1986