Jennifer Owen

Jennifer Owen (c.1935), discovered new species of insect and wrote numerous books on British wildlife.

Jennifer Bak was born the daughter of F. A. Bak, a noted amateur ornithologist and Leicester based textile manufacturer. Owen went on to study zoology in Oxford where in 1955 as an undergraduate she met Denis Owen. They married after graduation in 1958 and she went to the University of Michigan to work as a teaching fellow and complete a research PhD on the study of wasps. After the doctorate Owen took up teaching positions from 1962 in Makerere University, Uganda and Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone as well as Sweden. On her return to the department of zoology with University of Leicester in 1971 she noticed the huge number of insects in her garden in the United Kingdom compared to those in Africa and the study began.

Owen achieved the recording of ninety-one of the 256 species of hover flies in Britain in fourteen years. in thirty years of study she recorded 2,204 insect species in her own garden while also finding 20 species new to Britain and six which were previously undescribed. She wrote a book on the study, Wildlife of a Garden: A Thirty-Year Study. As well as the insects she counted Owen grew over 400 different plant species to determine the best food for the insects being tracked. The garden, and home of Owen is in Leicester. She worked as a zoology museum curator and university lecturer, however she is now a wheelchair user due to the impact of multiple sclerosis.

Owen won the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture in 2010.

Owen had a son and a daughter with Denis Owen. They divorced in 1994.

• "Garden Allies: Hover Flies". Pacific Horticulture Society. 14 November 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• Gilbert, F. (2012). Insect Life Cycles: Genetics, Evolution and Co-ordination. Springer London. ISBN 978-1-4471-3464-0. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• "CJS Focus on the Urban Environment: Wildlife Gardening". for biodiversity and people. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• John, P. (2018). The story of Alderley: Living with the Edge. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-5261-3188-1. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• Smith, David A.S. (24 October 1996). "Obituary: Denis Owen". The Independent. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• "Native plants are not always best for native insects". Transatlantic Gardener. 15 April 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• OWEN, JENNIFER; TOWNES, HENRY; TOWNES, MARJORIE (1981). "Species diversity of Ichneumonidae and Serphidae (Hymenoptera) in an English suburban garden". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Oxford University Press (OUP). 16 (4): 315–336. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1981.tb01656.x. ISSN 0024-4066.
• "Review: Only time separates a garden from a nature reserve". New Scientist. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• Inglis-Arkell, Esther (17 September 2011). "The story of the woman who discovered new species in her garden". io9. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• "Me and my garden: How Jennifer Owen became an unlikely champion of". The Independent. 12 November 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• Fray, R.; Davies, R.; Gamble, D.; Harrop, A.; Lister, S. (2010). The Birds of Leicestershire and Rutland. Helm County Avifauna. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4081-3311-8. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• "New Members of the Institute". Journal of the Textile Institute Proceedings. Informa UK Limited. 25 (11): P399–P400. 1934. doi:10.1080/19447013408663712. ISSN 1944-7019.
• "RHS awards five Victoria Medals of Honour". Horticulture Week. 7 July 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• Dr Ken Thompson. "Jennifer Owen's Studies" (PDF). Wildlife gardening forum.
• Atkins, J.; Atkins, B. (2018). Around the World in 80 Species: Exploring the Business of Extinction. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-429-79390-5. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
• Owen, D. F.; Owen, Jennifer; Chanter, D. O. (1972). "Seasonal Changes in Relative Abundance and Estimates of Species Diversity in a Family of Tropical Butterflies". Oikos. JSTOR. 23 (2): 200. doi:10.2307/3543406. ISSN 0030-1299.