Her brother David became a director-general of the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
In 1959 Kear joined the staff of Peter Scott's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.
Her work included studies to breed Hawaiian goose and the reintroduction captive bred geese into the wild.
[1] Kear was the first woman to become vice-president (1989–91), then president (1991–95) of the British Ornithologists' Union, and edited their Ibis magazine from 1980 to 1988.
At the time of her death, she was working on a biography of the early medieval saint Werburgh, who had an affinity with geese and is famous for bringing a goose back from the dead.