Anita Gamauf

Anita Gamauf (born January 23, 1962 in Wiesfleck , Burgenland ; † August 22, 2018 in Vienna ) was an Austrian ornithologist at the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHMW). Her research focus was the birds of prey .

Life

Gamauf was the daughter of Franz and Herta Gamauf. After graduating from high school in Oberschützen , she began studying zoology , human biology and botany at the University of Vienna in 1980 . In 1988 she presented her dissertation at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Comparative Behavioral Research , Austrian Academy of Sciences , Vienna with the title Hierarchical order in the nest and hunting habitat selection of three sympathetic bird of prey species (Pernis apivorus, Accipiter gentilis, Buteo buteo) with the it in February 1989 at the University of Vienna doctor of philosophy in zoology doctorate was. From January to June 1989 she completed an academic training at the Volksbildungswerk for Burgenland in Eisenstadt . From July 1989 to the beginning of 1992 she worked as a freelance biologist. From February 1992 to November 1993 she was a research assistant at the Institute for Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Agriculture, Vienna. From December 1993 to December 1995 she was a research assistant and postdoc at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Comparative Behavioral Research, where she was involved in several FWF projects, including ecomorphology and conservation of a tropical raptor community (Philippines) . In December 1995 she became an employee at the Natural History Museum Vienna in the departments for vertebrate zoology and ornithology. Between 2009 and 2011 she took over the management of the mammal department on an interim basis. In January 2010, she qualified as a private lecturer at the University of Vienna, where she supervised the master’s courses in the fields of evolutionary biology, ornithology and mammalogy. From October 2011 she was curatorial director of the bird department of the Natural History Museum Vienna.

Gamauf's projects included phylogenetic , ecological , morphological and behavioral issues. Her specialist articles have appeared in international journals, including The Auk , Ibis , European Journal of Wildlife Biology , Journal of Ornithology , Bird Conservation International , Journal of Raptor Research , Acrocephalus , Ornithologischer Anzeiger , Forktail , Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club , Zoologische Meddelingen , Buteo , Egretta and Die Vogelwelt . In 1998 she and her colleague Monika Preleuthner described the Mindanao boned eagle ( Nisaetus pinskeri ), which was named after the population geneticist Wilhelm Pinsker . In 2016, she participated in a genetic study by the British ornithologist Guy M. Kirwan , in which it was shown that the hooded monkey ( Sporophila melanops ) is not a valid taxon , but probably a hybrid .

Gamauf undertook ornithological trips to Venezuela , Siberia , Togo , Benin and the Philippines , where in 1993 she succeeded in rediscovering the Isabel pyrole ( Oriolus isabellae ) in northeast Luzon , a species of bird for which there has been no evidence since 1961.

literature

• Silke Schweiger & Andreas Hantschk: Priv. Doz. Anita Gamauf (1962-2018). ÖGH-Aktuell No. 48, October 2018, p. 9

Web links

• Profile at the Natural History Museum Vienna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ M. Preleuthner & A. Gamauf: A possible new subspecies of the Philippine Hawk-eagle ( Spizaetus philippensis ) and its future prospects. . (PDF) In: Journal of Raptor Research . 32, No. 2, 1998, pp. 126-135.
2. ↑ Juan Ignacio Areta, Vítor de Q. Piacentini, Elisabeth Haring, Anita Gamauf, Luís Fábio Silveira, Erika Machado, Guy M. Kirwan: Tiny Bird, Huge Mystery - The Possibly Extinct Hooded Seedeater (Sporophila melanops) is a Capuchino with a Melanistic Cap. In: PLOS ONE, May 2016
3. ↑ Anita Gamauf & Sabine Tebbich: Re-discovery of the Isabela Oriole Oriolus isabellae. Forktail 11, 1995, pp. 170-171