Alexander Frank Skutch

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Alexander Frank Skutch (born May 20, 1904 in Baltimore , Maryland , † May 12, 2004 in San Isidro de El General , Province of San José ) was an American naturalist and ornithologist who later lived in Costa Rica .

Live and act

His father was called Robert Frank Skutch (1878–1966), his mother Rachel W. b. Frank (1880-1974). In 1950 he married Pamela Joan b. Lankester (1920-2001), the daughter of the British immigrant Charles Herbert Lankester (1879-1969), who was also considered an excellent naturalist. The marriage with Pamela remained childless and so they adopt an abused boy named Edwin, who accompanied his father on his nature exploration at a young age before he finally went his own way.

The eldest son, Skutch grew up on a farm in the green hills of Maryland. It was here that he developed his passion for live animals. Shaped by his father's love for books, he read interdisciplinary works on history, literature and philosophy as a student. At Johns Hopkins University , under the influence of his professor of botany Duncan Starr Johnson (1867-1937), his decision to become a biologist finally matured . Financed by the United Fruit Company , he accompanied Johnson to the coast of Maine and Jamaica . In Jamaica he first came into contact with tropical nature and undertook to do a doctorate on the morphology of banana plants. His dissertation from 1928 was entitled The Anatomy of Leaf of Banana, Musa sapientum, L.Var.Hort. Gros Michel .

Bad experiences at a bird ringing station led his way away from the field of ornithology. He first studied banana plants on the United Fruit Company's plantations in Honduras and Panama, but here it was the diversity of birds that rekindled his interest in this field. In his first ornithological publication in The Auk from 1930, he describes the entire development cycle from nest building to the plumage of the gray-and-yellow Todityranns ( Todirostrum cinereum finitimum Bangs , 1904). After his return to the USA, while looking through Neotropical bird literature, he found that a lot was known about the taxonomy of species and subspecies, but practically no studies exist about their habitats . So he decided to observe the neotropical avifauna in their natural habitat without disturbing them with his behavior. It matched his philosophy of life of understanding and respect for the beauty and harmony of nature.

In the following years he roamed Central America , where he stayed in various farms and haciendas that support his ornithological studies. Here he gave tutoring to the children of the hosts and later collected a considerable herbarium . On Barro Colorado Island he met Frank Michler Chapman , whose life cycle studies influenced his further career. Nevertheless, he remained untypical for American ornithologists, as he never worked for museums or government agencies and never collected a single bird. Since he arrived in Costa Rica in 1935 , plant gathering developed into his profession. This enabled him to buy the Los Cusingos farm in 1941 , where he spent the rest of his life. This income also financed him shorter trips to other Neotropical countries to study the local avifauna there.

Much of what is known today about the life of around 300 bird species of the neotropics came from his pen. His three-volume work Life Histories of Central American Birds alone would suffice for an impressive life's work, but in 1976 his monumental work Parent Birds and their Young followed . In the late 1970s he developed a neck disease that made it impossible for him to observe the wilderness. So he resorted to writing down his earlier observations, such as B. in The Life of the Hummingbird or more philosophical works like Life Ascending .

Skutch has authored more than 200 scientific articles and 20 bird books. He also wrote 50 articles and four books on philosophy and three autobiographies .

In 1997, he and his wife established a foundation that today awards the Pamela and Alexander F. Skutch Research Award to scientists studying the life cycle of Neotropical birds.

Memberships and honors

In 1930 he became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), which was elected member in 1938, Fellow in 1945 and Honorary Fellow in 1979. For his numerous studies on the developmental biology of birds in the tropical western hemisphere , he was awarded the William Brewster Medal in 1950 .

Dedication names

Birds

In 1986 Allan Robert Phillips named a subspecies of the red -backed wrench Thryothorus rufalbus skutchi in honor , but today it is mostly used as a synonym for Thryophilus rufalbus castanonotus . The genus Skutchia , which Edwin O'Neill Willis (1935-2015) introduced in 1965 for the white- forehead ant bird ( Phlegopsis borbae Hellmayr , 1907), is at least controversial in the literature.

plants

Numerous botanists such as Ferdinand Albin Pax , Käthe Hoffmann , Conrad Vernon Morton , Albert Charles Smith , William Trelease , Alfred Rehder , Paul Carpenter Standley , Oakes Ames , Emery Clarence Leonard , Caroline Kathryn Allen and Sydney Fay Blake honored him with plant names. So one finds in the literature z. B .:

Publications (selection)

  • The Habits and Nesting Activities of the Northern Tody Flycatcher in Panama . In: The Auk . tape 47 , no. 3 , 1930, p. 313–322 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 554 kB ]).
  • Life History of the Blue and White Swallow . In: The Auk . tape 69 , no. 4 , 1952, pp. 392–406 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 900 kB ]).
  • Life Histories of Central American Birds (=  Pacific Coast Avifauna . 1 (Fringilidae, Thrapaupidae, Icteridae, Parulidae, Coerebidae), No. 31 ). Cooper Ornithological Society, Berkeley, California 1954 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 32.9 MB ]).
  • Life Histories of Central American Birds (=  Pacific Coast Avifauna . 2 (Vireonidae, Sylviidae, Turdidae, Troglodytidae, Paridae, Corvidae, Hirundinidae and Tyrannidae), No. 34 ). Cooper Ornithological Society, Berkeley, California 1960 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 43.3 MB ]).
  • Life Histories of Central American Birds (=  Pacific Coast Avifauna . 3 (Cotingidae, Pipridae, Formicariidae, Furnariidae, Dendrolaptidae, Picidae), No. 35 ). Cooper Ornithological Society, Berkeley, California 1969 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 40.8 MB ]).
  • A naturalist in Costa Rica . University of Florida Press, Gainesville 1971, ISBN 978-0-8130-0312-2 .
  • with Arthur Bernard Singer: The Life of the Hummingbird . Crown Publication, New York 1973, ISBN 978-0-517-50572-4 .
  • Parent birds and their young . University of Texas Pres, Austin 1976, ISBN 978-0-292-76424-8 .
  • A naturalist on a tropical farm . University of California Press, Berkeley 1980, ISBN 978-0-520-04149-3 .
  • Life Ascending . University of Texas Pres, Austin 1985, ISBN 978-0-292-70374-2 .
  • A naturalist amid tropical splendor . University of Iowa Press, Norman, Oklahoma 1987, ISBN 978-1-58729-224-8 .
  • Birds asleep . University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas 1989, ISBN 978-0-292-70773-3 .
  • with Frank Gary Stiles , Dana Gardner : A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica . Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, New York 1990, ISBN 978-0-8014-9600-4 .
  • The minds of birds . Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX 1996, ISBN 978-0-89096-759-1 .
  • with Dana Gardner, foreword: David Snow: Antbirds and Ovenbirds: Their Lives and Homes . University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas 1996, ISBN 978-0-292-77699-9 .
  • with Dana Gardner: Life of the Flycatcher . University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma 1997, ISBN 978-0-8061-2919-8 .
  • with Dana Gardner: Helpers at birds' nests: a worldwide survey of cooperative breeding and related behavior . University of Iowa Press, Norman, Oklahoma 1999, ISBN 978-1-58729-225-5 .
  • Harmony and conflict in the living world . University of Iowa Press, Norman, Oklahoma 2000, ISBN 978-0-585-26863-7 .
  • Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica . University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas 2002, ISBN 0-292-73459-X .

literature

  • Frank Gary Stiles: In memoriam: Alexander F. Skutch, 1904-2004. In: The Auk . tape 122 , no. 2 , 2005, p. 708-710 ( cro.ots.ac.cr [PDF; 130 kB ]).
  • Allan Robert Phillips: The known birds of North and Middle America. Distributions and Variation, Migrations, Changes, Hybrids, etc. 1 (Hirundinidae to Mimidae; Certhiidae). Roberts Rinehart Publisher, Denver 1986, ISBN 978-0-9617402-0-7 .
  • Edwin O'Neill Willis: Taxonomy and Behavior of Pale-Faced Antbirds . In: The Auk . tape 85 , no. 2 , 1968, p. 353–264 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 592 kB ]).
  • Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr .: The Sixty-Eighth Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union . In: The Auk . tape 68 , no. 1 , 1951, p. 92-105 ( sora.unm.edu [PDF; 716 kB ]).
  • Conrad Vernon Morton: New Species of Plants from Guatemala . In: Phytologia . tape 1 , 1935, p. 145-150 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Conrad Vernon Morton, Ferdinand Albin Pax, Käthe Hoffmann, Albert Charles Smith: New species of Costa Rican plants . In: Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. tape 27 , 1937, pp. 304-312 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • William Trelease: Five new oaks from Guatemala . In: Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. tape 23 , 1933, pp. 61-63 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Alfred Rehder: A new species of Acer from Guatemala . In: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum . tape 17 , 1936, pp. 350-351 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Paul Carpenter Standley, Emery Clarence Leonard: Flora of Costa Rica . In: Field Museum of Natural History (=  Botanical series ). tape 18 , no. 4 , 1938, pp. 1137-1616 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Paul Carpenter Standley: Studies of American plants X . In: Field Museum of Natural History (=  Botanical series ). tape 22 , no. 2 , 1940, p. 65-129 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Paul Carpenter Standley, Julian Alfred Steyermark: Studies of Central American plants II . In: Field Museum of Natural History (=  Botanical series ). tape 22 , no. 5 , 1940, p. 326-396 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Paul Carpenter Standley, Julian Alfred Steyermark: Studies of Central American plants . In: Field Museum of Natural History (=  Botanical series ). tape 23 , no. 1 , 1943, p. 1-28 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Paul Carpenter Standley, Julian Alfred Steyermark: Studies of Central American plants VII . In: Field Museum of Natural History (=  Botanical series ). tape 23 , no. 5 , 1947, pp. 195-265 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Caroline Kathryn Allen: Studies in the Lauraceae, VI. Preliminary survey of the Mexican and Central American species . In: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum . tape 26 , 1945, p. 365-434 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Oakes Ames: Studies in Stelis VII . In: Botanical Museum leaflets . tape 6 , no. 2 , 1938, p. 13-22 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Sydney Fay Blake: New Asteraceae from Guatemala and Costa Rica Collected by AF Skutch . In: Brittonia . tape 2 , no. 4 , 1937, pp. 329-361 , JSTOR : 2804759 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ F. Gary Stiles: ALEXANDER F. SKUTCH (1904-2004): UNA APRECIACIÓN in Ornitología Colombiana No3 (2005): 110-112
  2. ↑ nytimes.com June 7, 2004: Alexander Skutch, 99, Expert On Central American Birds
  3. ↑ a b c d Frank Gary Stiles, p. 709.
  4. ↑ a b c Frank Gary Stiles, p. 708.
  5. ^ Frank Gary Stiles, p. 710.
  6. ^ Pamela and Alexander F. Skutch Research Award
  7. ↑ Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr., p. 94.
  8. ↑ Allan Robert Phillips, p. 164.
  9. ^ Edwin O'Neill Willis, p. 257.
  10. ^ Ferdinand Albin Pax u. a. in Conrad Vernon Morton, pp. 306f.
  11. ↑ a b Conrad Vernon Morton (1937), p. 306.
  12. ^ Albert Charles Smith in Conrad Vernon Morton, p. 308.
  13. ^ Conrad Vernon Morton (1935), p. 148.
  14. ↑ Conrad Vernon Morton et al. a. (1937), p. 774.
  15. ↑ Alfred Rehder, p. 350.
  16. ^ Paul Carpenter Standley (1938), p. 1374.
  17. ^ Paul Carpenter Standley et al. a. (1940), p. 88.
  18. ^ Paul Carpenter Standley et al. a. (1940), p. 344.
  19. ^ Paul Carpenter Standley et al. a. (1940), p. 346.
  20. ^ Paul Carpenter Standley et al. a. (1943), p. 11.
  21. ^ Paul Carpenter Standley et al. a. (1947), p. 206.
  22. ^ William Trelease, p. 61.
  23. ↑ Oakes Ames, p. 17.
  24. ^ Emery Clarence Leonard in Paul Carpenter Standley, p. 1234.
  25. ^ Emery Clarence Leonard in Paul Carpenter Standley, p. 1213.
  26. ↑ Caroline Kathryn Allen, p. 396.
  27. ^ Sydney Fay Blake, p. 360.
  28. ^ Sydney Fay Blake, p. 357.
personal data
SURNAME Skutch, Alexander Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Skutch, Alexander F .; Skutch, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 2004
Place of death San Isidro de El General