Ian Strange
Naturalist, artist, author and conservationist who championed wildlife on the Falkland Islands
IAN STRANGE, who has died aged 84, was a naturalist, accomplished wildlife artist and photographer and one-time mink farmer who championed sustainable land management and wildlife conservation in the Falkland Islands from the 1960s onwards. He also applied his artistic skill and knowledge of the Falklands to work as a Crown Agents stamp illustrator and he was a prolific author of books and scientific papers on the natural history of the islands.
In 1959 Strange was recruited by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the Falkland Islands Company to go to the region and operate a mink farm, with the aim of diversifying the local economy from dependence on sheep. He had farmed the stoat-like mammals in Britain and threw himself enthusiastically into the task, but the operation proved uneconomic, and on winding up the project in 1965 he personally supervised the complete extermination of a species from the Falklands. Had any of the mink under his charge escaped into the wild, the consequences would have been disastrous for the bird population.
Strange knew on arrival in the Falklands that he would become immersed in the landscape and natural history. Soon he began recording sea lion and fur seal colonies. He acquired a 10-ton cutter, Gleam, which he used to survey the coast and many uninhabited offshore islands.
Later, using a photographic aerial survey technique which he pioneered for counting large colonies of mammals and birds, he began to make recommendations to the Falkland Islands government on matters of wildlife and conservation importance.
During the late 1960s and the 1970s the worsening relations between Argentina and the Falklands caused Strange to foster as many links as he could with international wildlife organisations in the hope that the land protections he tried to have introduced into legislation might have better hope of being secured in the event of any handover of the Falklands to Argentina. To this end he enlisted the support of many of the leading international conservationists of his day, such as Sir Peter Scott, Christopher Cadbury
(of the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature) and Richard Laws (later Director of the British Antarctic Survey).
After a 22,000-mile Land Rover trip in 1967 through the Americas, starting in the Falklands and ending in New York, he met the cruise operator, Lars Lindblad, and persuaded him to include the Falklands in his new venture, which was to take a small passen- ger vessel to the Antarctic Peninsula. In 1972, with Roddy Napier of West Point he was able to buy New Island on the far west of West Falkland.
This was the perfect platform to demonstrate how wildlife could be managed and studied in a reasonably pristine state, and Strange encouraged research into all aspects of natural history and conservation as well as establishing the first small shore-based eco-tourism operation on the Falklands. To protect the reserve and its projects in perpetuity after a long and protracted struggle, he founded and developed the New Island Conservation Trust, a UK Registered Charity.
He published his first book, The Falkland Islands, in the David & Charles Islands series in 1972. It became the standard source of information on the islands with its readable style and comprehensive and authoritative coverage. The book was thoroughly revised in 1981 and had a third edition revised to include the impact of the Falklands War.
Strange subsequently produced 10 more books (some with his daughter, Georgina) on Falklands wildlife, nature and the beauty of people and landscapes through photography. He published many popular articles on Falklands wildlife in high-profile magazines and most of his research passed peer-review scrutiny to be published in appropriate scientific journals. Strange has been described as the modern successor to Audubon, and his paintings, with their clear, crisp lines and attention to detail, are much sought-after.
Ian John Strange was born on 20 July 1934 at Market Deeping in Lincolnshire, the son of Leonard and Vera (née Corfield). He attended secondary modern school in Wolverhampton, then studied at Wolverhampton College of Art, specialising in botanical illustration and graphics. He completed a degree in Agriculture at Essex Agricultural College and joined the Army for his National Service, joining a specialist unit in 16th Independent Parachute Brigade in the Middle East.
For many years Strange was honorary adviser to the Falkland Islands government on the environment and wildlife and was asked to suggest new draft legislation for use in the Falklands. His substantive 1989 report was a watershed document. From 1982 until 2013 he was adviser to the Ministry of Defence and the British Forces in the Falkland Islands on environmental matters. He was appointed MBE in the New Year’s Honours in 1992 for “services as Wildlife and Conservation Adviser, Falkland Islands”.
He was not a man to compromise on his principles, and although he was often portrayed as stubborn, in hindsight a wider view of his position can be taken. He did accept the need for multi-functional use of the land resource and did not find this incompatible with wildlife conservation. He believed strongly in co-existence, if even for purely economic reasons, but wildlife was his clear priority.
Strange was both before his time and ahead of his time. Conservation did not feature high on farmers’ agendas in the 1960s and Strange’s warnings, proposals and recommendations often provoked objections or fell on deaf ears. But tourism gradually became a significant new revenue source. Strange had never opposed increasing the exposure of wildlife and the natural environment to tourism – indeed, he was one of its earliest and primary advocates. He saw tourism as a source of revenue which could benefit farms if properly managed and which could and should actively exist alongside sheep farming.
The cause he started and struggled with, often alone, and with fierce resistance in the early days, is now firmly embedded in the policy and practice of local government, society, and the farming and tourism sectors in the Falklands. Much of the work is now being taken on board by Falklands Conservation, a local-membership non-governmental organisation that works to conserve the natural environment of the Falklands for future generations and which owes Strange an immense debt of gratitude. All now follow the path he laid out – such is his legacy.
Those who respected his pioneering efforts and made the effort to consult him found that behind a somewhat fierce exterior was a generous and kind man who was always willing to give wise and sensible advice based on his vast experience and expertise.
Ian Strange married Irene Hutley in 1958; they had two daughters and a son but divorced in 1968, and the following year he married Annie Gisby. He married, thirdly, Maria Marta Villanueva, with whom he had a daughter. They survive him, along with the three children of his first marriage.
Ian Strange, born July 20 1934, died September 30 2018