Richard Kendall Brooke

Richard Kendall Brooke (born 1930 in India , † May 12, 1996 in Harare , Zimbabwe ) was a South African ornithologist .

biography

When Richard Brooke was born in India in 1930, his father was serving in the British Army . Richard Brooke began his academic career studying theology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown in what is now South Africa . He later worked in the civil service at the Ministry in Zimbabwe . But at that time his real interests were already in ornithology .

In 1972 he accepted the Durban Museum's offer to strengthen the workforce there, knowing full well that his previous bachelor's degree was not sufficient. His submitted doctoral thesis was examined by a prominent American ornithologist who had a few requests for changes. He offered him his support and the requirements could have been met quite easily, but Brooke vehemently refused and considered the previous work to be more than sufficient.

He then left the Durban Museum and returned to Zimbabwe, where he briefly worked for the Rhodesian Railways . His experience in ornithology eventually led to employment at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town . Here he spent many productive years.

After a long illness he returned to Zimbabwe in 1996, to his brother's house, where he died in May. Richard Brooke never married.

Scientific work

The first major focus of his work was the systematics of the sailors (Apodidae) of the old world . He quickly acquired a solid background in this area and became one of the specialists in the world. In addition to numerous publications on this topic, he also described new subspecies of the palm , bengal , scale and cape swift and introduced the genus Hydrochous .

As early as 1971 he belonged to a group of four specialists who deal with the bird life of Zambia . Later, especially after moving to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute , his area of ​​interest expanded and he also dealt with the systematics and other biological properties of seabirds . One of his most important works is the "South African red data book - birds" published in 1984, for which he received the Gill Memorial Medal . One of his last works dealt with the South African population of avocets , he tended distinguish them as separate subspecies, but it failed due to insufficient data.

swell

• Phillip Alexander Clancey: Obituary. Richard Kendall Brooke, 1930-1996. In: Durban Museum Novitates. 22:66, 1996