Yamashina Yoshimaro

Yamashina Yoshimaro ( Japanese 山 階 芳 麿 ; * July 5, 1900 in Kōjimachi , Tokyo (today: Chiyoda , Tokyo ); † January 28, 1989 in Tokyo) was a Japanese ornithologist . He is the founder of the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology.

Live and act

Yamashina was the second son of Kōshaku (prince) Yamashina Kikumaro. Even as a child he was fascinated by the world of birds. For his sixth birthday, he was given a stuffed mandarin duck.

Yamashina was first trained at the elite school Gakushūin . On the decree of Tennō Meiji , he then joined the Imperial Japanese Army . He completed the 33rd class of the Academy of the Imperial Japanese Army with a focus on artillery . Due to a revision of the law on the imperial budget of 1889, he lost the status of a Koshaku in 1920. Instead he received the nobility title of Shishaku (vice count) and the military rank of lieutenant. In 1929 he retired from the army to study zoology at the Imperial University of Tokyo , where he graduated in 1931.

In 1932 Yamashina founded the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology in his home in Shibuya , Tokyo. It houses extensive bird collections, ornithological libraries and research facilities. Yamashina's main research interests were the avifauna of Japan, East Asia and the Pacific. In 1942 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the cell biology in birds, Ph.D. at the University of Hokkaidō . In the following years, Yamashina devoted himself to genetic research in birds and specialized in DNA analysis to differentiate between bird species.

In 1984, the Yamashina Institute was at its present location in Abiko in Chiba Prefecture laid.

During his career, Yamashina has written numerous scientific articles and several books. He was the co-author of Handlist of Japanese Birds (1942) and the author of Birds in Japan (1961).

The first scientific descriptions of Yamashina include the Okinawaralle , the Rota-eyeglass bird , the long-billed eyeglass bird , the Borodino wren , the Tinian monarch and the genus Pyrroglaux .

In 1927 Yamashina became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union . In 1949 he became a corresponding member and in 1953 an honorary member. In 1977 he received the Jean Delacour Prize for his services in the field of ornithology and in 1978 he was awarded the Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands for his work in the field of nature conservation .

Dedication names

In 1935, Nagamichi Kuroda named the Taiwan stubby-tailed shrew ( Anourosorex yamashinai ) in honor of Yamashina.

Works (selection)

• The Birds of the Shizuoka Prefecture (1924)
• How to Breed Fancy Birds (1926)
• A natural history of Japanese birds (1933)
• Birds of Japan and their Ecology (1934)
• Handlist of Japanese Birds (1942)
• Bird Calendar (1948)
• Animal Taxonomy based on Cytology (1949)
• Save these birds. The Red Book of Endangered Japanese Birds (1975)
• Birds in Japan: A Field Guide (1982)

literature

• Bird, David M. The Bird Almanac: A Guide to Essential Facts and Figures of the World's Birds . Firefly Books. (2004) ISBN 1-55297-925-3
• Kuroda, Nagasiha: Yoshimaro Yamashina (1900-1989). Obituary in The Ibis. Volume 132, Issue 3, pp. 486-487
• Obituary by S. Dillon Ripley (PDF file; 48 kB)

Web links

• History of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Yamashina is the family name, Yoshimaro the first name.