John Young (naturalist)

John Young is an Australian naturalist and cinematographer.

Early life

John Young grew up on a farm for cattle and sheep in New South Wales. As a boy, he began egg-collecting with his brothers as a hobby. While in his twenties, Young held several jobs, including as an electrician, truck driver, and a fencer.[1]

Career

In the 1990s, Young created John Young Wildlife Enterprises. The company ran birding tours and also produced wildlife films with the aim of documenting rare species of birds. In 2006, Young claimed to have photographed a new species of parrot in southern Queensland, calling it the blue-fronted fig parrot. A forensic expert suspected that some color of the bird's plumage had been altered, changing its brow from red to blue. Young maintains that he did not alter the colors, stating that he only lightened or darkened parts of the images. Young says he deleted the original photographs of the bird, which were requested by the forensic expert.[1] In 2016, Young was hired as a senior biologist for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). He resigned from his position in September 2018.[2]

Night parrot controversy
Further information: Night parrot ยง 2013, 2016, 2017: Retracted records

In 2013, Young reported that he had sighted and photographed the night parrot, an endangered Australian bird.[2] Live night parrots had not been definitively documented since 1912, though two dead ones were found in 1991 and 2006. However, the appearance of mesh in one of Young's photos raised questions as to how he was able to get pictures and videos of such a secretive bird. Young denied that he captured the individual, which would have been illegal.[1]

In 2019, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy published a report determining that some of Young's supposed observations were not credible. They determined that night parrot calls recorded by Young at Kalamurina Sanctuary were the result of playing publicly available call files near the detector rather than calls from an actual bird.[3] Experts determined that an alleged night parrot nest photographed by Young contained fake eggs made of plaster or clay.[2]

As a result of their report, the AWC also retracted Young's findings related to the buff-breasted buttonquail, another endangered Australian bird.[3]

Documentaries
  • Ghosts of the Forest (2001)[4]
  • The Kingfishers (2004)[5]
  • John Young and the search for the red goshawk (2004)[6]
  • Kingdom of the Jabiru (2004)[7]
  • Rainforest: a musical journey through an Australian rainforest (2004)[8]
  • Owls (2004)[9]
  • Birds of Prey Part 1 (2005)[10]
  • Birds of Prey Part 2 (2006)[11]
  • Shadows in the desert: unearthing the secrets of the desert (2006)[12]
  • Wings of silence (2006)[13]

References
  1. Borrell, Brendan (2018). "A Naturalist With a Checkered Past Rediscovered a Long-lost Parrot . . . Then Things Got Interesting". Audubon. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  2. Borrell, Brendan (4 April 2019). "John Young Rediscovered the Australian Night Parrot, but Did He Lie About His Later Findings?". Audubon. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  3. "AWC receives findings from independent Night Parrot review panel". Australian Wildlife Conservancy. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  4. "Ghosts of the Forest (2001)". Screen Australia. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  5. "The Kingfishers". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  6. "John Young and the search for the red goshawk". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  7. "Kingdom of the Jabiru". Screen Australia. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  8. "Rainforest: a musical journey through an Australian rainforest". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  9. "Owls". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  10. "Birds of prey / Volume 1". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  11. "Birds of prey. Part 2". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  12. "Shadows in the desert: unearthing the secrets of the desert". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  13. "Wings of silence". WorldCat. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
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