Nikolai Zarudny

Nikolai Alexeyevich Zarudny (Russian: Николай Алексеевич Зарудный, scientific transliteration: .. Nikolaj Alekseevic Zarudnyj; * 13 Septemberjul / September 25 1859greg in Grjakowo in the government of Poltava, † March 17, 1919 in Tashkent) was a Russian zoologist who important pioneering work in the study of the avifauna of Central Asia. 238 Vogeltaxa were described by him, about 130 mammals, reptiles, fish, arthropods and molluscs were named after him.

Parts of its major collections are to be found today mainly in facilities on the territory of the former Soviet Union as the Russian Academy of Sciences or the University of Tashkent, but also in other international museums such as the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum.

From the Russian Geographical Society Zarudny has received numerous awards for his achievements.

Life

At the age of 11 years Zarudny entered a military school in Saint Petersburg and at the age of 20 years teacher of natural history at the military school in Orenburg. From 1892 to 1906 he taught at the military school in Pskov and until 1919 in Tashkent.

1888 Zarudny published his first book, a study of the avifauna in the government of Orenburg. The results of five expeditions in the Caspian region into northern Persia, Bukhara Khiva and 1884-1892 he summarized in 1896 in a work on the bird fauna of the Caspian region together.

Between 1896 and 1904 he led expeditions to Persia, where he first toured the region Birjand and the surrounding sandy deserts and the Sistansenke. Later, a 4500 km long circuit around the Iranian highlands followed. Here, more than 3,000 birds and 50,000 insects were collected.

From 1906 his studies were focused on the region around Tashkent, until 1912, he undertook further trips in the Tian Shan, the Ferghana Valley, along the Syrdarjas and in the Kyzyl Kum. In 1914 he discovered the important changes to the shoreline of the Aral Sea, which had arisen since an expedition of the researcher Lev Semenovich Berg 1902.

At the age of sixty years Zarudny died in 1919 in Tashkent from an accidental poisoning. His last work on the birds of Turkestan he could not accomplish.

Documents

• Entry in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Russian)