Editing Desmond Morris (section)

==Career==
Morris stayed at Oxford, researching the reproductive behaviour of birds. In 1956 he moved to London as Head of the [[Granada TV]] and Film Unit for the [[Zoological Society of London]], and studied the picture-making abilities of apes.<ref name="dmbiography"/> The work included creating programmes for film and television on animal behaviour and other zoology topics. He hosted Granada TV's weekly ''Zoo Time'' programme until 1959, scripting and hosting 500 programmes, and 100 episodes of the show ''Life in the Animal World'' for [[BBC Two|BBC2]].<ref name="dmbiography"/> In 1957 he organised an exhibition at the [[Institute of Contemporary Arts]] in London, showing paintings and drawings composed by [[common chimpanzee]]s. In 1958 he co-organised an exhibition, ''The Lost Image'', which compared pictures by infants, human adults, and apes, at the [[Royal Festival Hall]] in London. In 1959 he left ''Zoo Time'' to become the [[Zoological Society of London|Zoological Society]]'s Curator of Mammals.<ref name="dmbiography"/> In 1964, he delivered the [[Royal Institution Christmas Lectures|Royal Institution Christmas Lecture]] on ''Animal Behaviour''. In 1967 he spent a year as executive director of the London [[Institute of Contemporary Arts]].<ref name="dmbiography"/>

Morris's books include ''[[The Naked Ape|The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal]]'',{{sfn|Morris|1967|p=}} published in 1967. The book sold well enough for Morris to move to [[Malta]] in 1968 to write a sequel and other books. In 1973 he returned to Oxford to work for the ethologist [[Niko Tinbergen]].<ref>[[Horace Romano Harré|Harré, R.]] (2006). "Chapter 5: The Biopsychologists". ''Key Thinkers in Psychology'', pp. 125–132. London: Sage.</ref> From 1973 to 1981, Morris was a Research Fellow at [[Wolfson College, Oxford]].<ref name="sirc">{{cite web | url=http://www.sirc.org/about/desmond_morris.html | title=Desmond Morris | publisher=[[Social Issues Research Centre]] | access-date=1 December 2016 | archive-date=8 December 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161208162512/http://www.sirc.org/about/desmond_morris.html | url-status=live }}</ref> In 1979 he undertook a television series for [[Thames TV]], ''The Human Race'', followed in 1982 by ''Man Watching in Japan'', ''The Animals Road Show'' in 1986 and then several other series.<ref name="dmbiography"/> Morris wrote and presented the BBC documentary ''[[The Human Animal (TV series)|The Human Animal]]'' and its accompanying book in 1994. [[National Life Stories]] conducted an oral history interview (C1672/16) with Morris, in 2015, for its Science and Religion collection held by the [[British Library]].<ref name=oralhistory>[http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1672X0016XX-0001V0 National Life Stories, 'Morris, Desmond (1 of 2) National Life Stories Collection: Science and Religion', The British Library Board, 2015] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818061828/https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1672X0016XX-0001V0 |date=18 August 2021 }}.  Retrieved 9 October 2017</ref>

Morris is a Fellow ''honoris causa'' of the [[Linnean Society of London]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.linnean.org/our-fellows/royal-patrons-and-honorary-fellows|title=Royal Patrons and Honorary Fellows|publisher=The Linnean Society}}</ref>

Parallel to his academic and media career, Morris continued to create paintings in a Surrealist style. His art career spanned 70 years of his long life, though for decades his paintings were not widely known. But gradually they featured in exhibitions and were bought by public galleries, including the Tate in London. In 2017 his paintings were the subject of a BBC Four documentary ''The Secret Surrealist''.  Morris continued to paint Surrealist artworks quite prolifically into his nineties. <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-13 |title=Desmond Morris - related-content {{!}} The Redfern Gallery |url=https://www.redfern-gallery.com/artists/211-desmond-morris/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250113004725/https://www.redfern-gallery.com/artists/211-desmond-morris/ |archive-date=13 January 2025 }}</ref>