Florin Feneru

From: Bacau, Romania
Now living in: Orpington, UK

Profession: Naturalist

Degrees:
BSc in Biology and Ecology

MA in Museology

PhD in Zoology

Favourite systematic group:
Parrots (order Psittaciformes)

Areas of interest:
Parrots: diversity, conservation, behaviour, welfare.

Others:

Science, philosophy of science, skepticism, rationality.

Wildlife photography.

Personal blog:

Descoperă papagalii (in Romanian)

Favourite quotes:

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
Charles Darwin - The Origin of Species (Second Edition, January 1860)

"Our best hopes lie in the strenghtening the conditions that allow the flourishing of a diversity of living things, a diversity of ideas, and a diversity of choices.

Extinction is the thing that destroys those very conditions, so you join the epic battle with the demons that are devouring the world, and you do what you can. It's all anyone can expect of you. You do everything you can"

Terry Glavin - The Lost and Left Behind: Stories from the Age of Extinctions (2007)

"It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas... If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you... On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones"

Carl Sagan - The Burden of Skepticism (1987)