‘Birdwatching is close to rapture’: Margaret Atwood on why she has given C$1m to avian research — SkimNews
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- Margaret Atwood donated C$1m (£540,000) to Western University in London, Ontario, to create the Graeme Gibson chair in avian biology, announced on Friday.
- The gift honors Graeme Gibson, Atwood's late partner and fellow novelist, who co-founded the Pelee Island Bird Observatory with her more than two decades ago and died in 2019 after vascular dementia robbed him of his ability to journal about birds.
- Western University runs a global-leading avian research program that developed the world's first hypobaric climatic wind tunnel for bird flight, and co-director Chris Guglielmo said the donation was a "validation" of work stymied by a lack of "funding, people and time."
- Weeks before the donation, Atwood opened the Atwood-Gibson Bird Centre on Pelee Island — Canada's southernmost community, sitting at the intersection of the Atlantic and Mississippi migration routes and hosting more than 200 species each spring.
- Canada and the US have lost nearly 3bn birds since 1970, with migratory species down nearly 30%, while the blackpoll warbler — a Pelee migrant — has dropped more than 80% in five decades, making it the fastest-declining songbird.
- Atwood named the four biggest threats to birds as windows, cats, toxic pollution and habitat destruction, arguing that "birds have specific habitats that they need, so it's not like spreading butter on a piece of toast."
Why it matters: A C$1m endowment from one of Canada's most recognizable authors gives Western's avian biology program both funding and mainstream visibility at a moment when North America's bird population has fallen by roughly 3bn since 1970 and migratory species have dropped nearly 30% — pressures Atwood ties directly to human-driven habitat destruction.
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