Sex Advice for Animals, Plaguing Locusts and Bird Ringing Snatch This Year's Zoological Oscars

The fascinating book 'Dr Tatiana's sex advice to all creation' won author Dr Olivia Judson the Biosis Award for communicating zoology. Dr Tatiana is an agony aunt to whom a variety of organisms relay their sexual problems! In her book Dr Judson has found a very clever but entertaining way to communicate the evolutionary biology of sex to a wide audience.

Surprisingly, flying through the desert isn't as easy as it sounds! Dr Graham Taylor's work on 'Animal Flight Dynamics' gained him this year's highly regarded Thomas Henry Huxley Award for original work submitted as a doctoral thesis. Looking at the mechanics of stability and control, Dr Taylor focused on the effects of flapping flight, especially on the stability of desert locusts. He was based at Oxford University.

It's been nothing short of a ringing success for Chris du Feu this year as he bags the Stamford Raffles Award. This award is for distinguished contributions to zoology, open to amateur or professional zoologists, in recognition of contributions which are outside the scope of professional activities and principal specialisation.

Despite being hard of hearing and a full time teacher (now ex-teacher), this amateur naturalist single handedly turned Treswell Wood, managed by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, into one of the most informative areas of woodland in the UK for bird monitoring. He helped to introduce and lead bird ringing in the area and ultimately has made Treswell the first official integrated population monitoring site of the British Trust for Ornithology.

A number of further awards were presented at the Stamford Raffles lecture this year which was entitled Bird Artists and Artist Birds: Plumes and Bowers in New Guinea- see below:

Honorary Fellowship of the Zoological Society of London - Professor Sir Brian Follett

The Prince Phillip Prize- Stuart Goodfellow (For pupils under 19 years of age)

The Scientific Medal - Professor Mike Bruford, University of Cardiff and Dr Edward Holmes, University of Oxford

The Silver Medal, Category One- Peter Olney

The Silver Medal, Category Two- Professor Aubrey Manning

The Frink Medal for British Zoologists- Professor Quentin Bone

The Marsh Award for Conservation Biology -Professor Stuart Pimm

Over the last 150 years ZSL awards have been bestowed upon contributors from a wide range of zoological backgrounds. Previous winners include Sir David Attenborough and Professor Sir Robert May.

Notes to editors:

Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity: our key role is the conservation of animals and their habitats. ZSL runs London Zoo and Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, carries out scientific research in the Institute of Zoology and is actively involved in field conservation in other countries worldwide.

For more information, please contact Polly Wills on 020 7449 6241 or by email at polly.wills@zsl.org