The Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London is "Awarded to a Fellow of the Society or any other person for contributions to the understanding and appreciation of zoology, including such activities as public education in natural history, and wildlife conservation."[1] It was first awarded in 1847.[2]
| Year | Recipient[3] | |
|---|---|---|
| 1847 | Roderick Murchison & M Dalmatoff | |
| 1859 | Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning & William Hay & Henry Ramsey & Brian Houghton Hodgson & H G Keene & Rajendra Mullick & Richard Green & William Dougal Christie | |
| 1860 | George Grey & Gerald Chetwynd-Talbot | |
| 1862 | George Bennett | |
| 1869 | Rutherford Alcock | |
| 1872 | A D Bartlett | |
| 1875 | H H Seyyid Barghash bin Said | |
| 1877 | Robert Hudson | |
| 1878 | Frederick Richard Pollock | |
| 1882 | John Dean Caton | |
| 1884 | George H R Fisk | |
| 1887 | The Maharajah of Kuch-Bechar | |
| 1889 | Edward Dalzel Dickson | |
| 1891 | Ursula Edmondston & Robert Thomas Charles Scott | |
| 1893 | Donald Cameron of Lochiel & John Peter Grant of Rothiemurchus | |
| 1894 | Henry Hamilton Johnston | |
| 1897 | Alexander Whyte | |
| 1900 | John Ernest Matcham | |
| 1902 | Edmund William Harper | |
| 1904 | Arthur Thomson | |
| 1907 | Adam White Guthrie | |
| 1908 | David Seth-Smith & William Ingram | |
| 1909 | Charles Dunell Rudd & Richard Bowen Woosnam | |
| 1910 | Carl Hagenbeck | |
| 1912 | J Stevenson Hamilton | |
| 1914 | R E Drake-Brockman & Albert Pam & W K Pomeroy & H G F Spurrell | |
| 1917 | Wilfred A Smithers | |
| 1921 | John Young & Cecil H. Armitage | |
| 1926 | Henry Courtney Brocklehurst | |
| 1931 | A St Alban Smith | |
| 1937 | E B Carter | |
| 1938 | Gerald Cope Upstone | |
| 1942 | Alfred Ezra & Geoffrey Marr Vevers | |
| 1945 | Dorothy Pinto-Leite | |
| 1946 | William Chippendale | |
| 1952 | Annie Porter | |
| 1953 | Herbet F Vinall | |
| 1955 | John Withers Lester | |
| 1958 | Joao de Freitas Martins |
In 1964, the criteria for the Silver Medal were changed, split into 2 categories. Category 1 is awarded to individuals for Curation or distinguished service to the Society, whilst Category 2 is awarded to fellows who have provided a significant contribution to the field of zoology, including in both wildlife conservation and public education of natural history.
| Year | Category 1 | Category 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Lord Hurcomb | ||
| 1965 | David Attenborough | ||
| 1966 | Aubrey Buxton | ||
| 1968 | James Fisher | ||
| 1969 | |||
| 1973 | A J E Cave & Eirwen M Owen & L G Goodwin | ||
| 1974 | Eric Hosking | ||
| 1975 | Gerald H Thompson | ||
| 1983 | Stephen Jay Gould | ||
| 1984 | |||
| 1985 | L. Harrison Matthews | ||
| 1988 | Richard Dawkins | ||
| 1991 | Jane Goodall | ||
| 1993 | Jonathan Kingdon | ||
| 1997 | George B. Rabb | ||
| 1999 | |||
| 2003 | Aubrey Manning | ||
| 2004 | |||
| 2005 | Alastair Fothergill | ||
| 2007 | Scottish Ornithologists Club | ||
| 2008 | Rosie Trevelyan | ||
| 2009 | David Macdonald[4] | ||
| 2010 | Michael McCarthy[5] | ||
| 2011 | Martin Fisher | ||
| 2012 | Helen Roy | ||
| 2013 | Tim Birkhead | ||
| 2014 | Darren Mann | ||
| 2015 | Nathalie Pettorelli Seirian Sumner | ||
| 2016 | Richard Fortey | ||
| 2017 | Steve Jones | ||
| 2018 | James Barnett |