Ronald Strahan

Ronald "Ron" Strahan (born October 4, 1922 in Guildford , Western Australia , † July 3, 2010 in Melbourne , Victoria ) was an Australian zoologist , zoo director, historian and author of specialist books on the fauna of Australia .

Life

Strahan was the son of Leslie James and Helen Watson Strahan, nee Murray. He had a brother. After graduating from Perth Boys High School, Strahan studied at the University of Western Australia and Oxford . In 1943 he joined the second mobile entomological unit of the Australian Imperial Force , where he worked under the command of Colonel Francis Ratcliffe in malaria and tsutsugamushi control in northern Queensland , New Guinea and Borneo . After the war, Strahan graduated from the University of Western Australia with a degree in zoology in 1947 and, after graduating with a Master of Science degree, studied from 1949 at Lincoln College , Oxford, with the support of the Hackett Research Studentship Award from the National Health and Medical Research Council . He was then a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong and from 1961 at the University of New South Wales . In 1967 Strahan was appointed director of the Taronga Zoo at the request of Heini Hediger , the then director of the Zurich Zoo . He was a pioneer in promoting zoos as cultural science institutions and founded the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo , western New South Wales.

In 1974 he moved to the Australian Museum as a research assistant , where he was among other things editor-in-chief of the National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife . It was in the museum that he made his most lasting contributions to Australian mammal research. In 1983, his Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals was published. In 1995 a second, revised edition appeared under the new title Mammals of Australia and a third edition in 2008, with Steve van Dyck acting as co-editor.

In addition to his interest in mammals, Strahan carried out studies on jawless (Agnatha), which brought him international recognition. In 1975 he described the species Eptatretus longipinnis from the family of hagfish .

Private

In 1953 he married Helen Maris Burns. From this marriage there were three children. After the death of Helen Burns in 2002, Strahan was married to the Australian animal painter Pamela Conder (* 1955).

Dedication names and awards

1967 Gilbert Percy honored Whitley Strahan in the type epithet of the crested epaulette shark ( Hemiscyllium strahani ). In 1984 the Schleimaal species Eptatretus strahani was named after Ronald Strahan. In 1972 Strahan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales . In 1980, 1997 and 2008 his books Rare and Curious Specimens , An Incomplete Book of Australian Mammals and Mammals of Australia each received a Whitley Award from the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. In 1994 he received the Order of Australia (AM) and in 2000 an honorary doctorate (DSc) from the University of New South Wales. In 1987 he was elected honorary lifelong member of the Australian Mammal Society , of which he was a founding member in 1958.

Fonts (selection)

• Kangaroos and Men: A symposium of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales and held at the Australian Museum, Sydney, on 4th July, 1970. The Australian Zoologist, Volume 16, Part I, 1971
• Taronga Zoo and Aquarium , 1974
• Rare and Curious Specimens: An Illustrated History of The Australian Museum 1827–1979 , 1979
• A dictionary of Australian mammal names: Pronunciation, derivation, and significance of the names, with biographical and bibliographical notes , 1981
• The Wrens and Warblers of Australia: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife series , 1982
• How evolution came to a halt. The Inaugural Charles Darwin Memorial Lecture , 1983
• The Australian Museum Complete Guide Book of Australian Mammals: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife , 1983
• The Waterbirds of Australia: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife , 1985
• (with Peter Schouten ): Neville W. Cayley's What Mammal is That? , 1987
• (with Walter E. Boles ): The Robins and Flycatchers of Australia: The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife , 1988
• (with MG Brooker): Cuckoo Hosts in Australia In: Australian Zoological Reviews. No. 2, 1989
• Beauty and the Beasts. A fascinating history of Taronga & Western Plains Zoos and their antecedents , 1991
• Encyclopedia of Australian Animals: Mammals , 1992
• Mammals of Australia , 2nd revised edition, 1995
• Finches, Bowerbirds and Other Passerines: The National Photographic index of Australian Wildlife , 1996
• (with Pamela Conder): The Incomplete Book of Australian Mammals , 1998
• (with Pamela Conder): Dictionary of Australian and New Guinean Mammals , 2007
• (with Steve van Dyck): Mammals of Australia , 3rd revised edition, 2008

literature

• Suzannah Pearce: Who's Who in Australia , Herald and Weekly Times, 2007, p. 1959
• Leong Rui Lim: Obituary Ronald Strahan, AM, DSC (Hon), MSc (UWA), FRZS, FAIBiol. Pacific Conservation Biology, Volume 16, Number 3, 2010
• Michael Watkins, Bo Beolens: Sharks: An Eponym Dictionary , Pelagic Publishing, 2015

Web links

• Australian Museum: Tribute to Ron Strahan AM
• Literature by and about Ronald Strahan in the WorldCat bibliographic database