Michael Robinson

Apr 29 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

WAITING for his father’s key turning in the lock of their Preston home was a routine of pleasurable suspense for the young boy. Some days, it would be vividly coloured tropical fish, other days reptiles or chattering birds that accompanied his father home from the pet store and feed business he managed.

The stream of unusual visitors fostered in the young Michael Robinson the desire to become a biologist, and his fascination for the natural world never left him.

In a long and varied career, Robinson, who has died, aged 79, from pancreatic cancer, transformed a traditional zoo in Washington into a forward looking biopark, and his infectious enthusiasm for his subject galvanised those he worked with.

Mike’s plans to be a biologist were delayed when his father died in 1942 and he was apprenticed as a bricklayer. In the 1950s, he was conscripted into the RAF, serving in its medical corps. He attended teacher training college and taught science from 1953 to 1960 at a secondary school in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, and in 1955 married Bar- bara Cragg, who became his research partner.

In 1963, Mike gained a first in biology at the University of Wales, Swansea, and then studied under Nobel prizewinner Nikolaas Tinbergen at Oxford, writing his doctoral thesis on anti-predator adaptations on insects in Panama. He specialised in spiders and would regularly venture into the wild to study the behaviour of rare and exotic species, including a three-year stay in Papua New Guinea. He loved good food and world travel, and considered India the embodiment of both.

He joined the national zoo of Washington DC in 1980, becoming director in 1984. He transformed his vision of an animal quarters approximating natural conditions into reality, and the interdependence of plants, animals and environment was presented as informal education.

His particular pride and joy was Amazonia, which was dedicated to him, and contained a walk though simulated rainforest and a glassed-in flooded area housing rays, fish and turtles. Upstairs the exhibit opens to a lush forest, home to monkeys, sloths and other animals.

After retiring from the zoo in 2001, Robinson spent several months in Panama researching squid and orb- weaving insects. He then settled in Florida, relocating to Washington finally to esc- ape the hurricanes. Robin- son’s marriage to Barbara was dissolved and the couple had no children.

Michael Robinson, tropical biologist and zoo director; born January 7, 1929, died March 22, 2008.