Carl Sofus Lumholtz

Carl Sophus Lumholtz ( born April 23 1851 in Fåberg, Norway, † May 5, 1922 in Saranac Lake, New York, United States) was a Norwegian naturalist and ethnologist. He was a member of the Society for Science of Norway and foreign member of the Society of Anthropology of Paris. A national park in Queensland was named after him.

Life

Soon after his scientific degree Lumholtz toured from 1880 to 1884 on behalf of the Zoological Museum and Zootomischen the University of Christiania (Oslo ) South and Northeast Australia to discover new mammal species and to collect pieces of evidence for the museum. Because of his interest in primitive peoples he made ​​contact with the Aborigines, who supported him in his quest. They told him about an unusual animal that lives on trees in the mountains near the coast. Lumholtz went on a search and discovered the first of two occurring in Australia tree kangaroo species, which according to him Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo ( Dendrolagus lumholtzi ) was named. Previously, tree kangaroos were only known from New Guinea.

After his return to Norway in 1884 Lumholtz undertook due to his interest in primitive cultures between 1890 and 1910 six research trips to Northwest Mexico and traveled from 1913 to 1917 Borneo.

Works

Lumholtz reported in numerous articles in scientific journals and in several books of his travels:

• Among Cannibals. 1889
• Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head - Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917. 1917
• Unknown Mexico; A Record of Five Years ' Exploration Among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre; In the Tierra Caliente of Tepic and Jalisco; and Among the Tarascos of Michoacan ( in 2 volumes )