Henry Sheldon Fitch

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Henry Sheldon Fitch (born December 25, 1909 in Utica , New York , † September 8, 2009 in Stillwater , Oklahoma ) was an American zoologist and herpetologist .

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Fitch was born on December 25, 1909 in Utica, New York State. The following year, the family moved to Medford in the Rogue Valley in Oregon . There he grew up on a 0.5 km² ranch and developed a great interest in all reptiles he could find as a child . In 1926 he enrolled at the University of Oregon , but has moved his thesis for the University of California in Berkeley , where he 1933 Master of Arts , and in 1937 the doctorate ( Ph.D. ) in Zoology gained.

From 1938 to 1947 he worked for the U.S. Conservation Agency. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as a field biologist in the Pest Control Department, researching rodents such as squirrels , ground squirrels and kangaroo rats . During the Second World War he served as a pharmacist in the medical service from 1941 to 1945 . He was stationed in the United Kingdom , France, and finally Germany .

In 1946 he married Virginia Ruby Preston, with whom he had three children. After some difficulty in getting his previous position back at USFWS, he left the Conservation Agency in 1948 and accepted a position at the University of Kansas . There he worked as a zoology teacher and head of a 2.5 km² area in Douglas County , which was given to the university in 1947 by Governor Charles L. Robinson and initially only served the cattle farmers there as pastureland . Fitch was its first and so far only curator and made it a species-rich nature reserve .

In this Natural History Reservation he researched snakes and lizards, conducted zoology and ecology courses for students and spent five decades campaigning for the renaturation and preservation of the area as a nature reserve. In 1986 the university renamed it the Fitch Natural History Reservation .

In 1949 Fitch became a research assistant and in 1958 a professor at the university. From 1965 he also conducted research in Costa Rica , Mexico , Nicaragua , Ecuador and the Dominican Republic . Thanks to his commitment, a species protection program for the iguanas in Nicaragua was successfully implemented , which came into force in the 1980s.

In 1980 Henry Sheldon Fitch retired but remained an active herpetologist until 2006, continuing to research snakes and publishing numerous scientific papers.

The Fitch Award , which has been presented annually by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists since 1998 to an outstanding researcher on reptiles and amphibians, honors him for his numerous contributions to the understanding of systematics, ecology, natural history and for his commitment to the protection of amphibians and reptiles .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henry S. Fitch: ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION ON A NATURAL AREA IN NORTHEASTERN KANSAS FROM 1948 TO 2006 . In: Herpetological Conservation and Biology 1 (1): 1-5. 2006

Selected Works

  • Ecology of the opossum on a natural area in northeastern Kansas , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1953
  • Life History and ecology of the five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1954
  • The Forest habitat of the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1956
  • An ecological Study of the collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris) , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1956
  • Aspects of reproduction and development in the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1957
  • Autecology of the copperhead , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1960
  • Natural history of the racer, Coluber constrictor , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1963
  • Breeding Cycle in the ground skink, Lygosoma laterale , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1965
  • Variation in the Central American iguanid lizard, Anolis cupreus,: With the description of a new subspecies , Occasional papers of the Museum of Natural History - No. 8, Kansas, 1972
  • Sexual Size Differences in Reptiles , University of Kansas, 1981, ISBN 0-3170486-2-7
  • Coluber mormon, a species distinct from C. constrictor , Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science (with WS Brown, WS Parker), 1981
  • Reproductive Cycles in Tropical Reptiles , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1982, ISBN 9-9921488-0-2
  • Ecological and Taxonomic Notes on Nicaraguan Anoles (with Richard A. Siegel ), Public Museum Milwaukee, 1984, ISBN 0-8932610-4-1
  • Reproductive Cycles in Lizards and Snakes , Museum of Natural History, Kansas, 1991, ISBN 0-8933803-7-7
  • A Kansas Snake Community: Composition and Changes over 50 Years , Krieger Publishing Company, 1998, ISBN 0-8946499-6-5

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fitch, Henry Sheldon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Utica , New York
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 2009
Place of death Stillwater , Oklahoma