Bennett Hennessey

Profile: Bennett Hennessey was born in Quebec City, Canada to a British mother and Irish descended maritime Canadian. He grew up in Toronto, with a brief lapse living in Los Angeles for a year. At six, he wanted to be a veterinarian, at twelve he wanted to work in a zoo, and at nineteen he made the conclusive decision to work with animal conservation in the tropics. He completed a customized zoology/environmental science degree (before a conservation biology degree existed) at the University of Toronto. He worked on conservation projects in the Republic of the Congo for a year, finishing the period with an enlightening ten weeks living with the Babengeli rainforest pygmies. In 1995 Bennett decided to return and live in Bolivia on a long-term basis to dedicate his work towards bird conservation. He has been involved in over twenty-five ornithological expeditions throughout Bolivia with many in Madidi National Park, given over sixty public presentations, published over thirty science and general articles regarding birds and conservation, archived over 1300 bird sound recordings at Cornell Bird Lab's Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds, and rediscovered the Wattled Curassow for Bolivia, the Palkachupa Cotinga (after 98 years) and assisted in the rediscovery of the Horned Curassow in Peru. He speaks fluently English and Spanish with intermediate French and Portuguese. He has worked directly with twelve threatened species programmes such as the Blue-throated Macaw, the Red-fronted Macaw, and the Wattled and Horned Curassow. Bennett is the first author of the Annotated List of the Birds of Bolivian (2003). He became the executive director of the Bolivian bird conservation NGO Asociacion Armonía/ BirdLife International in 2003 which has grown in five years from two conservation projects, three employees and four financial supporters to twenty Bolivian and Peruvian bird conservation programs, thirty-two employees and thirty-four financial supporters. Bennett also assists his wife’s birdbolivia.com bird tourism company dedicated to supporting responsible tourism in Bolivia. Bennett lives on the outskirts of the tropical city of Santa Cruz in Bolivia with his wife Ruth, daughter Claudia, son Adam and ever hungry dog, Frider.