Alison Ballance Explained

Alison Ballance
Thesis1 Title:Aspects of the biology of Campbell Island feral sheep (Ovis aries L.)
Thesis1 Url:https://hdl.handle.net/10179/14189
Thesis1 Year:1986

Alison Patricia Ballance is a New Zealand zoologist, author, film-maker and radio producer. Ballance has written more than thirty books, filmed wildlife documentaries, and produced and presented radio and podcasts on a wide range of subjects relating to science and the natural world. In 2017, Ballance was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to natural history, filmmaking and broadcasting.

Career

Ballance graduated from the University of Auckland in 1980, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in 1982. Ballance completed a Master of Science at Massey University in 1986. Her thesis was titled Aspects of the biology of Campbell Island feral sheep (Ovis aries L.).[1]

Ballance has written more than 30 non-fiction books and children's books on topics such as kākāpō, takahē, rare wildlife, mountains and nature, and a biography of conservationist Don Merton. She was a finalist at both the New Zealand Post’s Book Awards and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and won a Storylines Notable Book Award.[2]

Ballance worked as a film-maker for many years and made more than 16 documentaries for the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel about animals as diverse as tigers, Przewalski's horse, the wētā, spectacled bears and marine iguanas in countries such as Mongolia, Russia, India and Ecuador.[3] She swam with 17 species of shark and wrote a book about the Great white shark.[4] [5]

From October 1990 to October 2008 Ballance was producer of natural history documentaries for Natural History New Zealand in Dunedin. She then produced and hosted Our Changing World, the weekly science and environmental radio programme of Radio New Zealand.[6] She retired from Radio New Zealand in 2021.[7] Ballance produced a number of podcasts, including Voice of the Iceberg, Voices from Antarctica,The Science Of... podcast series, the Kākāpō Files and Voice of the Kākāpō podcast series, and the International Year of the Periodic Table chemistry podcast Elemental.

In 2013 Ballance was part of an expedition to Three Kings Islands with a team from NIWA, Te Papa museum, and the University of Queensland.[8] [9] Ballance reported on the expedition for Our Changing World, and also wrote the expedition blog. She had earlier been a diver and science communicator on the 2011 Kermadec Biodiscovery expedition.

Honours and awards

In the 2017 New Year Honours, Ballance was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to natural history, filmmaking and broadcasting.[10] Other awards Ballance has won include:

Selected works

External links

Notes and References

  1. Aspects of the biology of Campbell Island feral sheep (Ovis aries L.). Ballance. Alison. MA thesis. Massey Research Online, Massey University. 1986. 10179/14189 .
  2. Web site: Alison Ballance - Storylines Children's Literature Charitable Trust . 2024-09-26 . www.storylines.org.nz . en-NZ.
  3. Web site: 2023-05-27 . Alison Ballance: the rediscovery and recovery of the takahe . 2024-09-25 . . en-nz.
  4. News: Radio New Zealand . 2017-04-08 . Alison Ballance - tracking great whites . 2024-09-25 . New Zealand Geographic . en-NZ.
  5. Web site: Brettkelly . Sharon . 2021-03-25 . The Detail: The amazing Alison Ballance . 2024-09-25 . Newsroom . en-US.
  6. Web site: Alison Ballance RNZ Radio New Zealand Presenter . 2024-09-25 . . en-nz.
  7. Web site: Bretkelly . Sharon . 26 March 2021 . The Detail: The extraordinary career of documentarian Alison Ballance . 2024-09-25 . www.stuff.co.nz.
  8. Web site: All About the Expedition All About the Expedition - Three Kings Islands . 2024-09-25 . threekings.aucklandmuseum.com.
  9. Web site: Alison Ballance Alison Ballance - Three Kings Islands . 2024-09-25 . threekings.aucklandmuseum.com.
  10. Web site: 2016-12-16 . New Year Honours 2017 - Citations for Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) . 2024-09-25 . www.dpmc.govt.nz . en.
  11. Web site: 2012-06-01 . 1998 Awards Booksellers New Zealand . 2024-09-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120601083557/http://www.booksellers.co.nz/awards/new-zealand-post-childrens-book-awards/1998-Awards . 1 June 2012 .
  12. Web site: 2016-08-15 . 2011 Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize . 2024-09-26 . . en-nz.
  13. Web site: Alison Ballance . 2024-09-25 . Potton & Burton . en-GB.

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