Richard Kendall Brooke

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

Biography

When Richard Brooke was born in 1930 in India, his father served in the British Army. His academic career began with Richard Brooke studying theology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown in South Africa today. Later, he took a job in the civil service in the Ministry in Zimbabwe true. His true interests were, however, already at the time of ornithology.

In 1972 he accepted the offer of the Durban Museum, to strengthen the local workforce, knowing that his former bachelor's degree this was not sufficient. His doctoral thesis submitted has been reviewed by a prominent American ornithologist, who had a few requests for changes. This offered him pass on its support and the requirements could be met quite easily, but Brooke refused vehemently and kept the previous work for more than adequate.

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

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

Scientific Work

The first major focus of his work was the classification of sailors ( Apodidae ) of the Old World. In this field he had quickly acquired a solid background and has become one of the specialists. In addition to numerous publications on this subject also he described new subspecies of Palm, Bengal, dandruff and Kapseglers and introduced the genus Hydrochous.

In 1971 he was one of a group of four specialists who deal with the birds of Zambia. Later, especially after the change to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, his area of ​​interest extend and he was also involved in the scheme and other biological characteristics of seabirds. One of his most important works is the 1984 released " South African red data book - birds ," for which he was awarded the Gill Memorial Medal. One of his last works dealt with the South African population of avocets, he tended to 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

• Ornithologist
• Born in 1930
• Died in 1996
• South Africans
• Man