Faculty Bio

Dr. Glen Chilton

Professor Emeritus

I have been enchanted by birds since childhood. One of the best days of my life was when I discovered that studying wild birds is an actual job. My primary scholarly research focusses on ornithology, behavioural ecology and conservation biology. I have also written books for a general audience. The Curse of the Labrador Duck and The Attack of the Killer Rhododendrons were best-sellers, while The Return of the Ferret Zombies and The Most Amazing Birds in the world (for young readers) are in preparation. My research has taken me to forty-five countries, with many more to come.

One of the greatest honours of my life is teaching biology. I began teaching at the age of nineteen at the University of Manitoba, and have continued for almost a half-century at the University of Regina, the University of Calgary, Grande Prairie Regional College, Old Sun Community College, St. Mary’s University and James Cook University. I was one of the original nstructors at St. Mary’s when her doors were first thrown open to full-time university studies.

My life is a joy. I have been bitten by a crocodile in Jamaica, paddled the entire River Thames, worked with Australian Aboriginal elders to capture endangered sea turtles, run every step from Edmonton to Calgary in support of the fight against breast cancer, been mugged by an orangutan in Borneo, been blessed by a priest in a rock-hewn church in remote northern Ethiopia, and searched for missing tardigrades in Japan with Professor Gary Grothman.

I left St. Mary’s University in order to move to Australia with my beautiful wife, Lisa. The “other” Professor Chilton is a biomedical physiologist, whose work on cardiac function may save you from dying prematurely of a heart attack. Our English cocker spaniel is named after the evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace.

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Education

B.Sc. (Zoology). University of Manitoba. Supervisor: Jack Gee.
M.Sc. (Zoology). University of Manitoba. Supervisor: Spencer Sealy.
Ph.D. (Ornithology and Behavioural Ecology). Supervisor: Ross Lein