John Dennis

John Value Dennis (1915/1916 – December 1, 2002) was an American ornithologist and botanist.

Early life John V. Dennis was born in 1915 in Princess Anne, Maryland to Alfred and Mary Dennis (nee Value). Alfred Dennis died when Dennis was a teenager. Mary operated a boarding house in Washington, D.C.

Dennis was an undergraduate at George Washington University. His education was interrupted by World War II. During the war, he served as a radar technician with the Flying Tigers aircraft unit in Yunnan, China.

He finished his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin, obtaining a degree in political science. This was followed by a master's degree in botany from the University of Florida. He started, but did not complete, a PhD in ornithology at the University of Illinois.

Work and contributions

Botany In 1976, Dennis and fellow botanist Dr. C.R. Gunn wrote the guide World Guide to Tropical Drift Seeds and Fruits. Additionally, Dennis co-authored Sea-Beans from the Tropics: A Collector's Guide to Sea-Beans With Ed Perry. Dennis' work was often through a conservation lens, such as his book The Great Cypress Swamps, where he discusses the importance and history of swampland in the United States.

Search for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Dennis studied woodpeckers extensively, and is credited with creating a repellent to keep woodpeckers off telephone polls. He reported a sighting in the Big Thicket of southeast Texas in 1966, which he called his "only good look at a North American ivorybill"; His sightings formed part of the basis for the creation of the Big Thicket National Preserve.

Bird feeding He wrote A Complete Guide to Bird Feeding (1975), a book that increased interest in bird feeding. They had two daughters, and a son.

Partial list of works Dennis, J. V. (1948). "A last remnant of Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Cuba." Auk 65:497–507. —— (1967). "The Ivory-bill flies still." Audubon 69(6):38–45. —— (1975). A Complete Guide to Bird Feeding. —— (1988). The Great Cypress Swamp.