A LANCASHIRE-born zoologist and former director of the National Zoo in America, Dr Michael H Robinson, has died at the age of 79.

Michael H Robinson directed the huge Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington DC between 1984 and 2001, getting rid of the small cages and giving the animals more natural environments to live in.

He believed the zoo should be a place where people could learn about the animals' relationship with the environment, and himself loved to be surrounded by all sorts of creatures.

At university as well, he was more interested in studying animals in the wild than in the laboratory, and before joining the zoo in 1984, he spent 18 years studying spiders and insects in Panama in Central America.

During his time there he put in the Think Tank, an exhibition about orangutan language and intelligence, and installed large Amazonian and invertebrate attractions.

He also developed the Pollinarium, where visitors could study plants and the pollination process.

Robinson became a television personality in America, and frequently visited Congress with animals to make presentations.

Born in Preston in 1920, his interest in biology was inspired by his father's pet store and its exotic animals. He later taught science at girls' secondary schools in Oswaldtwistle and Cornwall.

He also wrote many academic books and articles, and completed his memoirs The Road to Wau shortly before his death of pancreatic cancer on March 22.