David Lack

David Lambert Lack (born July 16, 1910 in London , † March 12, 1973 in Oxford , England ) was an English biologist and ornithologist .

Lack's father was an avid ornithologist, who aroused his son's interest in birds at an early age. David Lack attended Gresham's School in Norfolk and studied science at Magdalene College , Cambridge , before teaching biology at Dartington Hall School near Totnes . During this time he also carried out research on the robin and took a year off for a trip to the Galápagos Islands . The result of this period are two of his most important books, The Life of the Robin (1943) and Darwin's Finches (1947). The latter work first coined the name " Darwin's finches ", which today stands for a subfamily of the Tangaren .

During his military service in World War II , Lack gained experience with radar tracking, which he later used to investigate bird migration between mainland Europe and England. At the end of the war he became director of the Edward Gray Institute for Field Ornithology at Oxford University , a position he held until the end of his life. During this time, among other work and research, he developed his views on reproductive rates in birds and the natural regulation of family size. His two books The Natural Regulation of Animal Numbers (1954) and Population Studies of Birds are important here .

In addition to his scientific work, Lack was also able to reproduce his knowledge in an understandable way for interested laypeople. An example of this, in addition to the already mentioned The Life of the Robin, is the book Swifts in a tower , published in 1956 , with which he also advanced to one of the pioneers of swift research.

In 1951, Lack was elected as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society , which awarded him in 1972 the Darwin Medal . He was President of the International Ornithological Congress in 1966 , but otherwise his public appearances were rather rare. Nevertheless, Ernst Mayr attested to him having an enormous influence through his annual conferences for students or through his observations of bird migration. Two sentences from the London Times obituary describe him aptly:

Lack [...] greatly influenced the course of ornithological studies and by his friendly and enthusiastic nature inspired many students to take up the study of birds.

"Lack [...] influenced the course of ornithological research to a great extent and, through his friendly and enthusiastic manner, inspired many students to study ornithology."

He was essentially an individualist, with only a few really intimate friends.

"He was essentially an individualist, with very few, but good friends."

Web links

• Obituary (PDF file; 250 kB)