Charles Fleming

Who was Charles Fleming?

Sir Charles Alexander Fleming, KBE, FRS, FRSNZ, FRAOU was a New Zealand ornithologist, avian palaeontologist and environmentalist.

He was active in the Save Manapouri Campaign, was a spokesperson for Native Forest Action Council and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand. In 1974 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union.

In 1988 the Royal Society of New Zealand established the Charles Fleming Award which is awarded to individuals who have achieved distinction in the protection, maintenance, management, improvement, or understanding of the environment.

In 1997, Trevor H. Worthy commemorated Charles Fleming in the species' epithet of the prehistoric rail Pleistorallus flemingi from the mid-Pleistocene of New Zealand.