The Wall of the Dead: A Memorial to Fallen Naturalists

(Updated 12/11/23)

We go to great lengths commemorating soldiers who have died fighting wars for their countries.  Why not do the same for the naturalists who still sometimes give up everything in the effort to understand life?  Neither would diminish the sacrifice of the other.  In fact, many early naturalists were also soldiers, or, like Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle, were embedded with military expeditions.

With that in mind, I started to construct a very preliminary Naturalists’ Wall of the Dead, to at least assemble the names in one place, as I was researching my book The Species Seekers.  If I have missed someone, or made other mistakes, please suggest changes in the comments.  I am trying to focus on naturalists who died in the course of their work.  Though he may have acquired Chagas disease in his travels, for instance, Darwin died at home, age 73, of Crohn’s disease, and so does not really fit this list.  (UPDATE: Texas conservationist John Karges just tipped me off to this article on “Job-Related Mortality of Wildlife Biologists in the United States,” with a lot of names not yet included in this list.  Please take a look and let me know if you see people in your field who are missing and deserve mention. It will help me get names up faster if you could please include dates and links to additional sources in roughly the format below:

Last name, First Name, (year of birth-death), brief description of specialty and contributions, died, age ??, of what cause, where. Add URL for relevant link.   Photos also welcome.

To check your information, it may help to look at this list of species seekers and their finds, complied by Bionomia.net/

If you want to link to this list on Twitter or elsewhere, the Tiny URL is http://bit.ly/1rf6N9E    I’ll also post a notice on Twitter if I have to add new names.  You can follow me @RichardConniff.  And please be careful out there, so you do not become one of the names I have to add.  Thank you.

Aaronsohn, Aaron (1876 -1919), botanist who discovered wild emmer,  “the mother of wheat.”  He was also the founder and head of Nili, the Jewish spy network that provided critical aid to British troops in Palestine during World War I.  The brilliant military campaign led by Field Marshall Edmund Allenby might have seemed to outsiders to take unwarranted risks, the chief of British military intelligence later said, but “That is not true. For Allenby knew with certainty from his intelligence [in Palestine] of all the preparations and all the movements of his enemy … Under these conditions, victory was certain before he began.”  Aaronsohn died, age 43, in a plane crash on route to Britain after the war.

Abe, Katsumi (c.1953-1998),  Japanese researcher of the evolution and behavior of planktonic bioluminescent ostracodes (minute crustaceans known in Japan as “marine fireflies”), died, in his mid-40s, driving home late from a conference.

Abe, Takuya (1945-2000)  termite ecologist at Kyoto University, drowned, age 55, when his small boat was caught in a storm during an expedition on the Sea of Cortez.

Abramchuk, Siarhei (1984-2010),  promising young Belarusian ornithologist, of encephalitis, age 26, after a tick bite in the national park Belavezhskaya pushcha, Belarus.

Adams, Alan (1960-1983); a British birdwatcher from Liverpool, disappeared, age 22, while following the vocalizations of Tragopan satyra, also known as the crimson horned pheasant, in late afternoon on the Langtang trek at Tharepati, Nepal

Adams, Charles Baker (1814-1853), American malacologist, named about 800 species of mollusks from Jamaica, Panama and eastern USA, died, age 39, of yellow fever, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

Adamson, Joy (1910–1980), a naturalist, artist, and author best known for the book and movie Born Free, found murdered, age 69, in her camp on Kenya’s Lake Naivasha, by a former employee.

Adamson, George (1906 –1989), British wildlife conservationist and author best known through the book and movie Born Free, shot dead, age 83, in Kenya’s Kora National Park by Somali bandits.

Akeley

Akeley, Carl (1864–1926), naturalist-taxidermist for the American Museum of Natural History, age 62, while collecting mammals in the eastern Congo, of dysentery.

Alberico, Michael S. (1947-2005), American mammalogist, namesake of Alberico’s broad-nosed bat, died, age 58, in a robbery as he was getting into a taxicab in Cali, Colombia, immediately after taking money out of an ATM.

Alexander, Capt. Boyd (1873–1910), explorer and ornithologist, was murdered, age 37, in what is now Chad.

Anchieta, José Alberto de Oliveira  (1832-1897) was a Portugese naturalist and collector who traveled widely in Angola and Mozambique. He died, age 64, probably from chronic malaria, when returning from an expedition to the Caconda region of Angola.   He was responsible for identifying 25 new species of mammals, 46 of birds and 46 of amphibians and reptiles.  Three birds, seven reptiles and four mammals are named after him.

Anderson, James D. (1930-1976), herpetologist and taxonomist at Rutgers University who described several snake and salamander species, died, age 46, in a car accident on a field trip to study bog turtles.  The species Ambystoma andersoni, which he discovered in Mexico, was named in his honor.

Anderson, William (1750–1778), surgeon-naturalist on Cook’s second and third voyages, died at sea, age 27, possibly from scurvy.

Andrews, Timothy Peter (1958-1990), British amateur ornithologist, shot dead, age 32, while trying to escape guerrillas of the Marxist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) while conducting an expedition in north-central Peru, in the Tingo María area of the Upper Huallaga River Valley; no body was found. (See also Entwhistle, Michael Alan, below)

Archambault, Noel (1961-1998), IMAX cameraman, died, age 36, in an ultralight accident while filming in the Galapagos.

Arenas, Miguel Ángel Soto (1963–2009), a Mexican orchid specialist who described many new species and was an outspoken conservationist, assassinated while working at home late one night, age 46.

Artedi, Peter (1705-1735), Swedish “father of ichthyology,” drowned, age 30, in Amsterdam, where he was cataloging the vast natural history specimen collection of Albertus Seba.  Artedi is the subject of a recent biography,  The Curious Death of Peter Artedi, by Theodore W. Pietsch

Banister, John (1650–1692), British naturalist and clergyman, shot  “per misadventure,” age 42, when he bent over to pick a plant while exploring in Virginia. Another account says he fell from rocks. His dried plant specimens are now in the British Museum.

Barbadillo, Pablo (1984-2008), a young Spanish biologist, was doing his doctoral dissertation fieldwork on large reptiles and how humans interacted with them in Amazonian Peru. He was based at the Los Amigos Biological Station (CICRA) in the Madre de Dios department, when he traveled to a small town upriver on the Madre de Dios and did not return, age 23. Police found his body in an advanced state of decay, cause of death unknown.

Barthelt, Annette (1963-1987), marine biologist from the University of Kiel in Germany, killed, age 24, with a large group of others in a terrorist attack in Djibouti while waiting to board a three-month expedition of the German research vessel Meteor in the Indian Ocean.

Bassignani

Bassignani, Filippo (1967?-2006), Italian zoologist and lover of travel, large mammals, and the conservation of nature, died age 39, on a trip to Mozambique, after being charged by an elephant that had been wounded by poachers.

Bastard, Toussaint (1784-1846), a French botanist, died, age 62, by falling from a cliff in France while trying to collect a fern.

Batty, Joseph H. (1850–1906), taxidermist and specimen hunter who had endured plague, drought, and other hardships while collecting for more than three years for the American Museum of Natural History.  He had recently been accused of fraudulent practices, when he was “killed instantly by the accidental discharge of his gun,” age 55, in Mexico.

Beaulieu, Ryan (1987-2005) pioneered the banding and research program for rosy finches in New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains, killed, age 18, in an automobile accident while on a birding trip.

Bečvář, Stanislav (1938-1997), Czech entomologist, shot dead, age 59, by soldiers in Laos while collecting beetles.  Here’s a detailed account of the incident.  His son of the same name, also an entomologist, was seriously wounded in the attack but survived and continues to do field work.

Berlandier, Jean Louis  (1805–1851) was a French botanist, who worked as a collector in Mexico. He drowned, age 46, while trying to cross the San Fernando River. A reptile, an amphibian, two mammals and a bird are named after him.

Bergman, Robert D., (1942-1974), ornithologist, was studying waterfowl and wetland relationships in advance of development of the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope. He died, age 31, when his plane went down in an extreme windstorm over the Gulf of Alaska. The aircraft was never found despite 750 hours of searches.

Bernstein, Heinrich Agathon (1828–1865), German physician and collector of birds and mammals, age 36, on the island of Batanta off New Guinea, cause unknown.

Bevins, John (1955-1990), bear researcher, disappeared, age 34, during a polar bear monitoring flight over the Arctic Ocean 240 miles northwest of Point Barrow, Alaska.

Biermann, Adolph(1839–1880), curator of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, sur­vived attack by

tiger while walking in garden but succumbed a year later, age 41, to cholera.

Birtwell, Francis J. (18??-1901), an ornithologist from Boston, was strangled to death by his climbing rope, age ??, as his bride looked on, while he was attempting to collect a bird nest on the Rio Pecos in New Mexico. The couple, married a month earlier, were on their honeymoon. Olivia Birtwell subsequently published her husband’s notes from the trip in The Auk.

Black, George (1916-1957), a U.S.-born botanist and explorer of the Amazon,  drowned, age 41, during an expedition.

Blom, Byron Darryl (1940-1973) a, University of California Santa Barbara graduate student in ornithology, died, age 32, from an accidental fall into the ocean on Santa Cruz Island. He had been staying at the U.C. Santa Cruz Island Reserve Field Station for his research and working alone. His body was found weeks later off the southern coast of the island.

Boerlage, Jacob Gijsbert (1849–1900), Dutch botanist on his 51st birthday, on a botanical expedition to the Moluccas to identify plants described by Rumphius, cause unknown.

Böhm, Richard (1854-1884), a German zoologist and former student of Ernst Haeckel, traveled extensively in East Africa, where he died, age 30, of a fever. Three mammals and five birds are named after him.

Boie, Heinrich (1794–1827), German ornithologist, age 33, of “gall fever,” in Java, one of a long succession of naturalists to die in the service of the Dutch Natural History Commission to the East Indies.

Boll, Jacob (1828–1880), a Swiss naturalist who collected for Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and later for paleontologist Edward D. Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He died, age 52, in his camp along the Pease River in the Texas Permian redbeds, ostensibly of septicemia. According to another source, Boll was “bitten by a snake and having no means of reaching medical aid in a hurry the excessive heat and long exposure caused blood poisoning which ended in speedy death.” Cope attributed Boll’s death to “his indifference to his personal comfort while exploring the Permian beds at my instance.”

Bossuyt, Francis J. (1970-2000), University of California at Davis animal behaviorist, disappeared while bathing in the lake at Cocha Cashu Biological Station in Peru, age 30.  Colleagues found only his shoes and towel on the dock; he was possibly taken by a caiman.  Bossuyt’s father, an engineer, had died four years earlier in the TWA flight 800 crash.

Bowdich, Thomas E. (1791–1824)), English explorer and naturalist in West Africa, author of Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, &c., died, age 33, of malaria in Gambia.

Bowman, David (1838–1868), Scottish plant collector, robbed of his speci­mens in Colombia and said to have died of “mortification,” but more likely from dysentery, age 30, in Bogota.

Boynton, David (1945-2007), a naturalist on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, he died, age 51, in a fall from a 300-foot-high cliff on the north coast.  “There is a fern that grows in thick mats along these ridges,” he once told a journalist, “and I know from personal experience that you can try to push your way through this green layer and wind up stepping off into air.” In the 1980s, Boynton was the last person to see and photograph a bird now believed to be extinct, the ʻŌʻōʻāʻā (Moho braccatus).

Breninger, George Frank (1865-1905), a mineralogist, ornithologist, oologist, and expert taxidermist, collected widely in the Southwest and Mexico for the Field Museum of Chicago. He died, age 40, after a prolonged illness related to his taxidermy work. As reported in Condor: “The cause of his death was paralysis, which resulted directly from arsenic poisoning incurred while preparing specimens.”

Brodský, Otakar (1940- 1986), Czech coleopterist, died of a heart attack, age 45, while collecting Cleridae beetles in a rainforest in Vietnam.  He was reportedly seated under a tree with his collecting equipment in his hands, and his colleagues didn’t immediately realize he was dead.

Brown

Brown, Kirsty M. (1974-2003), marine biologist with the British Antarctic Survey, drowned, age 29, when attacked while snorkeling and dragged 200 feet underwater by a leopard seal.

Brun, Einar (1936-1976) noted Norwegian seabird ecologist, aquaculture pioneer, and echinoderm specialist at the University of Tromso, died at age 40 in a small plane crash during inclement weather in northern Norway, while returning from marine bird surveys.

Brunete, José (17??-1787), one of the two botanical artists on the Spanish Expedición Botánica of 1777-1788 to South America. He died from a fall from his burro, age unknown, in Pasco, Peru.

Buchalla, Marco (1959-1987), marine biologist from the University of Kiel in Germany, killed, age 28, with a large group of others in a terrorist attack in Djibouti while waiting to board a three-month expedition of the German research vessel Meteor in the Indian Ocean.

Buday, Gábor (1954-1984), was a botanist at the University of Debrecen (Hungary). Although he was an experienced climber, he died, age 30, on Mt. Kilimanjaro due to high-altitude pulmonary edema.

Budden, Keith Clifford  (1930-1950) was an Australian herpetologist who set out to collect a live specimen of the highly venomous and aggressive Taipan snake, Oxyuranus scutellatus. He caught it in his bare hands. As he was trying to put it in a bag, it slipped from his grasp and bit him. He died the next day, but that snake was among the first Taipan specimens caught alive. It was used in the search for an antivenom.

Buddingh, Johan Adriaan (1840–1870), Dutch civil servant and amateur collector for the Leiden Museum, age 30, in Batavia (Jakarta), Java, cause unknown.

Bupathy, Subramanian (1961-2014), herpetologist and head of conservation biology at India’s Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, died, age 53, after a fall and a 13-hour ordeal being carried down to help, with a bamboo spike in his left eye. Madhusudan Katti, a colleague, commented, “He went out in action, in the field surveying for reptiles, just across the Agasthyamalai mountain in whose rain shadow I spent my formative years chasing leaf warblers. Never thought about the risks of simple slip down a slope. Just unbelievable that Bhupathy lost his life in such a horribly random fashion. He’s survived by his wife and two teenaged children.”

Burchell, Jonathan Edward (1973-2003), American bush pilot for the Laikipia Predator Project , died  age 30, in a light aircraft accident, while radio tracking lions near Nanyuki, Kenya.

Bussing, William A. (1933-2014) celebrated fish researcher, died in November 2014, age 81 following an automobile accident in Costa Rica.

Cahoon, John Cyrus (1863–1891), American ornithologist and field natural­ist, fell off a sea cliff, age 28, in Newfoundland.

Cairns, John S. (18??-1895), a young birder in North Carolina, was shot and killed, age ??, by an accidental discharge of his own gun, while on a trip to the Black Mountain area.

Caraza, Filberto Muñoz (19??-2002), assistant research scientist in Cuzco, Peru, for the Missouri Botanical Garden, died, age unknown, in a fall from a cliff when he was attempting to collect an orchid specimen.  The species Bomarea filibertii is named in his honor.

(Photo: Glenn Bartley)

Cardona Molina, Gonzalo (1965?-2021), a Colombian conservationist and  the coordinator of the Reserva Loros Andinos in the Andes, brought the yellow-eared parrot back from supposed extinction. He was murdered, age 55, by an unidentified criminal gang in Colombia. He was 55 years old. From 81 individuals found in 1999, he rebuilt the population of yellow-eared parrots back to 2895 individuals in his recently completed survey, with other species also saved in the process.

Cardoso, Adão J. (1951-1997), herpetologist at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo, died, age 46, in a car accident on a field trip.

Carr, Cedric E. (1892-1936), New Zealand-born specialist in orchids, he collected in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo,  and New Guinea, where he came down with blackwater fever and died, age 44.  Among the species named for him:  Acriopis carrii, Calanthe carrii, Kuhlhasseltia carrii, and Malaxis carrii.

Cassin, John(1813–1869), American ornithologist who described 198 new species, age 55, apparently of accidental arsenic poisoning, from his work preserving specimens.

Chabot, Valerie A. (1962 – 1994), a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer, was attempting to band a peregrine falcon in Alaska when she fell 75 feet and died, age 31.

Chang, Fonchii (1963-1999), ichthyologist, drowned, age 36, along with her motorista in a boat accident near Lake Rimachi, Peru.  She was wearing rubber boots, which filled with water and anchored her to the bottom.  He was shocked by an electric eel, knocked unconscious, and drowned.

Charcot, Jean Baptiste Auguste Étienne (1867–1936), French neurologist, malacologist, polar explorer, and oceanographer. Abandoned study of medicine after his physician father died. Drowned, age 69, when his vessel (the Pourqoui Pas?) capsized while on a polar survey off Greenland.

Chasen, Frederick Nutter  (1896-1942), British ornithologist, director, Raffles Museum, Singapore. Killed when the HMS “Giang Be,” the ship upon which he was evacuating Singapore, was sunk by Japanese forces in the Bangka Strait.

Cheng, Yu-Pin (1966-2009), a botanist and ecologist at Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, died, age 43, in a car accident on his field trip to collect a rare Fagaceae (or beech family) species in Pingtung County, Taiwan.

Chernov, Ivan Yu (1959-2015), eminent Russian soil biologist and mycologist at Moscow State University, died of a heart attack, age 55, while on fieldwork in Cát Tiên National Park, Vietnam.

Chillcott, James G.T. (1929-1967), a Canadian entomologist specializing in flies, died of a heart attack, age 37, near Kathmandu, Nepal.

Christy, Cuthbert (1863-1932, a zoologist and physician, traveled extensively in Central and West Africa to study sleeping sickness.  In what was then the Belgian Congo, he shot a buffalo, which then gored him.  He died of his wounds, age 68, three days later.

Cirillo, Domenico Maria Leone (1739-1799). Italian naturalist, court physician, professor of botany, publicly executed, age 60, during a political revolution in Naples.

Clark, Rebecca (1971-2004), a marine biologist from Canada, died age 32 in the infamous 2004 tsunami in Thailand, while working on a sea turtle conservation project

Clemens, Joseph  (1862 – 1936), a British-American missionary, was in the Huon Peninsula, in what is now Papua New Guinea, collecting plant specimens for international herbaria when he died, age 73, probably from food poisoning after eating wild boar meat.

Co

Co, Leonardo (1953-2010), botanist at the University of the Philippines, age 56, shot down with two assistants in what the military claimed was a gun battle with rebel forces, while collecting seedlings of endangered trees for replanting. But a colleague says  soldiers ambushed Co’s party soon after giving permission to collect in that area, perhaps because they regarded the university as a hotbed of leftist radicalism. The names of two species of Philippine endemic plants now honor Co: the orchid Mycaranthes leonardi and the parasitic plant Rafflesia leonardi.

Coelho, Elias Pacheco (1950-1987), a marine biologist at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, he later switched to the study of sea birds.  He was climbing a sea cliff on the island of Cabo Frio to investigate some bird nests when he fell to his death, age 37.  Oddly, his colleagues named the Rio de Janeiro spiny rat in his honor, Trinomys eliasi.

Collins, Joseph (1938-2012), herpetologist at the University of Kansas, founder of the Center for North American Herpetology, co-author of  a Peterson Field Guide: Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, he died, age 72, of a heart attack while on a collecting trip in Florida.

Cook, Capt. James (1728-1779), British naval commander of three expeditions around the world, sometimes a reluctant naturalist (as when he spent a day plying back and forth in heavy weather in the Strait of Le Maire while Banks and Solander botanized onshore), but he made possible some of the pioneering species collections in the great age of discovery.  Killed, age 50, in a confrontation on the beach in Hawaii.

Copley, Joanna (1955-1988), a Scottish researcher, was studying baboons in Mkuzi Game Reserve in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, when a rhino charged, struck her with its horn, and broke her neck, age 33.

Copus

Copus, Josh (1980-2019), an American Ph.D. student at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, died, age 39, in a diving accident while conducting research on new species in coral reefs in the mesophotic zone–meaning mid-light, from about 30 to 150 meters deep–in the Solomon Islands. The university has posthumously awarded him his doctorate.

Cousteau, Philippe (1940–1979), French oceanographer, diver, and filmmaker, second son of Jacques-Yves and Simone Cousteau, author of  Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea, died, age 38, when his PBY Catalina flying boat crashed in the Tagus River near Lisbon.

Cox

Cox, Jack H. (1952-2010), crocodile specialist, died, age 58, from cerebral malaria, in Laos.

Cralitz, Heinrich (?–1637), a German physician and astronomer, accompanied a Dutch West Indies Company expedition to Brazil in search of botanical medicines, and died soon after arrival, of an unknown disease.

Cranch, John (1785-1816), a collector of natural history objects, died, age 31, probably of yellow fever, while serving aboard HMS Congo on its exploration of the Zaire River. He may have been the first naturalist to employ a plankton net.

Craven, Ian (1962–1993), ornithologist, died, age 31, plane crash in Irian Jaya.

Crispin, William B. (1881-1913), a birder in New Jersey, fell more than 200 feet to his death, age 32, while trying to collect the eggs of a “duck hawk”–that is, a peregrine falcon–on the Nockamixon Cliffs, above Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

Cunningham, Richard (1793-1835), colonial botanist and superintendent of the Sydney Botanic Garden Australia 1833-35, died age 42, near the Bogan River in NW New South Wales, Australia. He wandered away from Sir Thomas Mitchell’s expedition to explore the Darling River, frightened a group of Aborigines and they killed him. Details at: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cunningham-richard-1943
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cunningham_(botanist)

Cutler, William Edmund (1878-1925), rancher turned vertebrate paleontologist, excavated dinosaurs on the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada, 1910-1912, including an armoured species later named Scolosaurus cutleri.  After World War I, he went on to a dig in Tanganyika (now Tanzania).  But he ignored the advice of his young assistant, one Louis Leakey, to take antimalarials. He soon predictably contracted malaria and died in his tent, age 47.

Dalton (or Dorlton), George (17??-1769), a black servant and specimen collector for botanist Joseph Banks aboard Capt. Cook’s HMS Endeavour, he was frozen to death, age unknown, on Banks’s ill-considered collecting expedition in Tierra del Fuego.

Darling, Samuel Taylor (1872-1925), “Darling of Panama,” U.S. medical entomologist and member of the League of Nations Malaria commission killed, age 53, in the same car accident with Norman Lothian in Beirut, while researching malaria mosquito epidemiology in the Middle East.   The Lothian Scholarship and Darling Prize for malaria research were created in their honor.

Dawson, Elmer Yale(1918–1966), Smithsonian Institution phycologist, age 48, drowned while diving for seaweeds in the Red Sea.

Défago,Gérard (?-1942), Swiss entomologist working with Karl Roos on DDT.  Both died, ages unknown, in an unexplained car crash near Heidelberg, Germany. The Swiss chemical company Geigy, which would eventually sell DDT to both sides in the war, had apparently sent them on a clandestine mission to inform the Nazi government of their research.  The Germans hoped to use DDT against the potato beetle, which they apparently feared the Allies would employ as a weapon of biological warfare.  One theory is that the visiting Swiss scientists learned something that day about Germany’s own plans for biological warfare.

de Filippi, Filippo (1814 – 1867), an Italian doctor, traveler, and zoologist, set out in 1866 on a government-sponsored scientific voyage to circumnavigate the globe, died, age 53, in Hong Kong from dysentery, cholera, or liver problems, according to various accounts.  But his assistant said simply that  he“ fell, as a soldier on the field of battle, a victim to his love of Natural Science.”  De Filippi’s Petrel (Pterodroma defilippiana) is named in his honor.

DeGruy, Mike (1951-2012), a National Geographic cinematographer who introduced viewers to remarkable species and behaviors hidden beneath the sea, he died, age 60, in a helicopter crash while filming in Australia.

Denno, Bob (1945–2008)  influential entomologist, died of a heart attack, age 62, while collecting butterflies in Georgia.   Asked what the point was of all his hard work on ecology, Denno once said it was “because of the jazz.  The ‘jazz’ is “when you figure something out, when you discover one small part of how life works on this planet.”

Devaney, Dennis M. (1938-1983) an invertebrate zoologist at Bishop Museum specializing in ophiuroids, disappeared, age 45, on a dive collecting trip at north end of the island of Hawaii.  Several species and the genus Devania are named for him.

Dittmar, Bob (1955-2020), a wildlife veterinarian with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, died, age 64, in a helicopter crash, while doing survey work for the desert bighorn sheep herd in the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

Dodson, Stanley (1944–2009) , a University of Wisconsin freshwater ecologist who focused on zooplankton, community ecology, and population ecology of Daphnia, died, age 65,  following a bicycle accident in Colorado.

Doerksen, George (1940-1981), a Canadian entomologist specializing in dragonflies, was working on the northern border of British Columbia, when he was attacked and killed, age 41, by a grizzly bear.

Doherty, William (1857–1901), American lepidopterist and specimen hunter for Walter Rothschild, of dysentery, age 44, in Kenya’s Aberdare Mountains.

D’Osery, Eugene (1818-1846), a French traveler and collector, was killed, age 28, by Indians while a member of Francis de Laporte de Castelnau’s collecting expedition (1843-1847) to the source of the Amazon. D’Osery has two birds, plants, fish, and other taxa named after him.

Douglas, David(1799–1834), Scottish botanist and explorer, said to be the greatest plant collector ever, died age 35, on falling into a pit trap already occupied by a bull, in Hawaii.

Drummond,Thomas (ca. 1790-1835), Scottish naturalist who collected 750 New World species of plants and 150 specimens of birds,  had hoped to make a complete botanical survey of Texas, but died, about age 45, in Havana, Cuba, in March 1835, while making a collecting tour of that island, of unknown cause.

Dutreuil de Rhins, Jules Léon (1846–1894), French explorer, age 48, mur­dered in Eastern Tibet.

Dyck, Markus (1966-2021), a leading polar bear biologist in northern Canada, died, age 55, when his helicopter crashed on Griffith Island, 22 kilometers southwest Resolute Bay, during a springtime population survey. He was an early contributor to the understanding of how polar bears were responding to climate change. The crash also killed two helicopter crew.

Eberhardt, Les (19??-1992), wildlife ecologist with the Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, killed, age unknown, in a plane crash in Yakima, Washington.

Egler, Walter A. (1924-1961), Brazilian botanist, died, age 36, on an expedition to the Rio Jarí, a northern tributary of the Amazon, when his outboard motor failed and his canoe went over a waterfall. The Reserva Walter Egler in Amazonas, Brazil is named after him.

Eickwort, George Campbell (1940–1994), hymenopterist, age 54, car acci­dent in Jamaica.

Embar, Keren (1978-2014), an evolutionary ecologist specializing in predator-prey behavioral games, died, age 36, after contracting the local endemic hanta virus while doing research with bank voles in Finland.

Engeling, Gus A., (19??-1951), a naturalist, plant collector, and game warden, was shot and killed, age unknown, by a poacher he was trying to arrest. The Gus A. Engeling Wildlife Management Area in East Texas is named in his honor.

Entwhistle, Michael Alan (1960-1990), British amateur ornithologist, captured and murdered, age 30, by guerrillas of the Marxist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). He was conducting an expedition in north central Peru, in the Tingo María area of the Upper Huallaga River Valley, when he was taken on 12 June or later; no body was found. (See also Andrews,Timothy Peter, above.)

Epova, Nina (1920-1960), Russian botanist, drowned, age 40, during a river crossing in Khamar Daban Mountains. Her research led to the creation of Baikal Nature Reserve.

Evert, Erwin F. (1940 -2010), botanist in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, where he found five new species of plants, published Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area: An Annotated Catalog and Atlas, died, age 70, in  a “fatal encounter with a grizzly bear” while on his daily botanical walk in the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming.

Farrer, Reginald John(1880 – 1920), a traveler and plant collector in Asia, particularly in the high mountains, published a number of books, including My Rock Garden, died, age 40, either of diphtheria or alcohol poisoning, according to various reports, in the Minshan Mountains of Burma.

Feilner, Capt. John (1830–1864), German-born ornithologist collecting for the Smithsonian Institution, surprised and killed, age 34, by Sioux while collecting ahead of his U.S. Army expedition in the Dakotas.

Felzien

Felzien,Gregory (1965-1992), predator biologist, killed, age 26, by an avalanche in Yellowstone National Park while tracking mountain lions.  He was experienced at back country work but is said to have remarked, “If I ever have to die, I want it to be here in Yellowstone tracking cats.”

Field,  Andrew M. (1955-1984), an ecologist, fell from a tree, age 29, while conducting canopy research in Venezuela.

Fitzgerald, William Vincent (1867-1929), Australian botanist, mining expert, and explorer, died of blackwater fever, age 62, while searching for sandalwood in the Bismarck Range of New Guinea’s Central Highlands in 1929. He described Acacia and Eucalyptus species and collected for botanists Ferdinand Mueller and Joseph Maiden. He was also known through his excellent work on orchids.

Fitzner, Dick (1946-1992), wildlife ecologist with the Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, killed, age 47, in a plane crash while studying sage grouse for the Army in Yakima, Washington.

Fonseca, Rene Marcelo (1976–2004), Ecuadorian mammalogist, age 28, car accident.

Forbes, Charles Noyes (1883 – 1920), an American botanist, discovered a new species of cypress in San Diego County.  It’s now named Hesperocyparis forbesii in his honor. But he did most of his work in Hawaii, exploring the bogs, cliffs, mountain ranges, and valleys, and named 52 plant taxa. He and spent almost a month on a field trip in the summer of 1920, though he “was not a well man” to start with according to a colleague, Edwin H. Bryan, who accompanied him.  “It rained every one of the 26 days, at times continuously,” Bryan added, “weather not helpful to drying plants, catching insects, and living in a tent.” Forbes died, age 36, shortly after returning to Honolulu, of an unspecified cause.

Fornes, Abel (19??-1974), a self-taught Argentine mammalogist, died, age unknown, reportedly when his gas mask leaked as he was using hydrocyanic gas in a well to kill and collect bat specimens. His companion Elio Massoia named the Pygmy Rice Rat Oligoryzomys fornesi in his honor.

Forsskål, Pehr (1732–1763), Helsinki-born “apostle” of Linnaeus’s, age 31, of malaria in what is now Yemen.  See also Christian Carl Kramer.

Fossey, Dian (1932-1985), leading primatologist and conservationist studying mountain gorillas, found murdered in her cabin, age 53, in the Virunga Mountains, Rwanda (case unsolved).

Fountaine, Margaret (1862–1940), a British lepidopterist, collected and beautifully illustrated butterflies during her extensive travels through Europe and much of the British Empire.  Fountaine suffered a heart attack and was found dead, age 77, butterfly net in hand, on the path back to the hostel where she was staying during a visit in Trinidad. At her death, she left a collection of 22,000 specimens and a diary in which she wrote, “if I did not turn my long days of toil to some scientific account when I got the chance, for what else have I toiled?

Fraisse, Rémi (1993–2014), a French botanist active in conservation, was killed on impact, age 21, by a stun grenade fired by police during a protest against construction of a dam in Lisle-sur-Tarn, France. No charges were filed in the killing.

Franco, Roberto (1956-2014), a political scientist who worked with the Amazon Conservation Team-Colombia to identify isolated tribes and protect their habitat, died, age 62, when his flight crashed after takeoff from Araracuara in the department of Caquetá.

Franco-Rosselli, Maria del Pilar (1950-2000), Colombian botanist of the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, specializing in the genus Cecropia, who was electrocuted, age 50, when the pole she used for collecting plants hit an electric wire hidden in the vegetation.

Fraser, Charles (1788–1831) was colonial botanist of New South Wales, Australia, from 1821 to 1831. He collected and catalogued hundreds of native plants. He died, age 43, after falling ill with an unknown disease on a collecting expedition to Bathurst.

Frost,  Thomas M. (1950-2000), Univeristy of Wisconsin limnologist interested in ecosystems, plankton communities, rotifers, and freshwater sponges, died, age 50, in Lake Superior while saving his 9-year old son Eliot.

Gallman, Emanuelle (1966-1983), Italo-Kenyan self-taught herpetologist, died,a ge 17, from a puff adder bite at Ol Ari Nyiro.

Gaines, David (1947-1988) , birder in the Sierra Nevada,  author of  The Birds of the Yosemite and the East Slope, and the main impetus behind saving Mono Lake from SoCal’s unquenchable thirst. He died, age 41, in a car accident near Mono Lake. Here’s a good biography (but disregard the dates).

Galway, Edward (17??-1816), an Irish naturalist, died, probably of yellow fever, while serving aboard HMS Congo on its exploration of the Zaire River.

Gambel, William (1823–1849), American naturalist, namesake of Gambel’s quail, age 26, of typhoid fever in the Sierra Nevada.

Gentry, Al (1945–1993), a botanist for the Missouri Botanical Garden, killed in  a plane crash in the mountains of Ecuador, age 48. A colleague recalls that, in the field, “His hands and clothes were invariably scratched and bathed in all color of brown, black, and green, after hours and hours of tree climbing” to gather specimens.

Gerhart

Gerhart, Nathaniel G. (1975-2007), conservationist and ornithologist who rediscovered the selva cacique (previously thought to be extinct), age 32, of a car accident while working on an NSF study in Indonesia.  Here’s a link to some memories from family and friends.

Gibbard, Gregory (19??-2015), an Australian working for African wild dog conservation in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, was killed, age ??, by two blows to the head with an axe.  A former employee said to have been unhappy with his severance payment has been arrested in the killing.

Gibbins, Ernest Gerald (1900-1942), researcher on mosquitoes and black flies, speared to death, age 42. while he was investigating a yellow fever outbreak in Uganda. His attackers reportedly believed that the blood samples he was taking were intended for witchcraft purposes. An investigating policeman said that Gibbins’  body was “as full of spears as a bloody porcupine.”  The mosquito Anopheles gibbinsi is named for him.

Gibbons, John R.H. (1946-1986), herpetologist, described several species of lizards in Fiji, including the spectacular Fiji Island iguana.  Died, age 40, along with his entire family in a boating accident off the island of Lekeba.

Gilbert, John (1810?–1845), British naturalist and explorer, collected Austra­lian mammals and birds for John Gould until killed by a spear, age 35, during a nighttime raid on his camp by Aborigines.

Giggleman, Marina Vargas (1960 – 2007), a marine biologist from Venezuela, died, age 47, in an ATV accident while working to find and protect nesting Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles at Padre Island National Seashore in Texas.

Gmelin, Samuel Gottlieb (1744–1774), a German physician, botanist and explorer, was  on an expedition in the Caucasus when he was taken hostage and died of ill treatment, age 30, in captivity in Akhmedkent, Dagestan.

Goenaga, Carlos José (1951-1993), a coral researcher in Puerto Rico, died age 42 when a huge wave washed him off a rock, while he was searching for an elusive mollusk with his students.

Goldbach, Robert (1949-2009), a virologist at Wageningen University and an avid birder, was trampled to death, age 60, by an elephant in Kaziranga National Park while traveling in India.

Gómez, Herman (1969-2020), a conservationist who fought to defend a monarch butterfly sanctuary in Michoacán state, Mexico, from illegal logging, found dead, age 50, presumed murdered.

Gomez, Margarita (1987-2011), Universidad de los Andes biology student murdered, age 23, by the ring leader of a drug gang while filming and photographing the biodiversity of area known as “La Camaronera,” in San Bernardo de Viento, in Cordoba, Columbia.

Grant, Harold J.(1921–1966), American entomologist, age 45, drowned on an expedition collecting grasshoppers in Trinidad.

Sharon Gray, age 27

Gray, Sharon (1986-2016), a plant biologist at the University of California-Davis, she was hit by a rock and killed, age 30, while driving past a land rights protest outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was attending a meeting about her work on how climate change affects crop growth.

Gregg, Josiah (1806-1850), author of Commerce of the Prairies (1844), merchant, plant collector, explorer, physician.  An article about him reports:  “Exhausted from vigorous travel, near-starvation, and continuous exposure to severe weather, Gregg died on February 25, 1850, as a result of a fall from his horse, and was buried” near Clear Lake in California.

Gressitt, J. Linsley (1914-1982), entomologist, died, age 68, in a plane crash in China

Griffith, William(1810–1845), British botanist in India and Afghanistan, age 34, of malaria.

Grooms, Wayne (1945?-2016), a South Carolina conservationist, died, age 71, just 15 minutes after being bitten on the leg by a snake, thought to have been a timber rattler, during a hike in Santee National Wildlife Refuge.

Grzimek, Michael (1934-1959), German zoologist and environmentalist, lost control of his plane on hitting a vulture in the Serengeti and died, age 24, in the crash.

Gurung, Chandra (1949-2006), WWF official, pioneer in sustainable development involving local people, killed, age 57, in a helicopter crash that took the lives of 24 people, many of them World Wildlife Fund conservationists, below Mount Kangchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak. They had traveled to a remote corner of northeastern Nepal to celebrate the government decision to transfer stewardship of the wildlife, peaks, trails, rivers, forests and immense beauty of this special place to local communities.

Gyöngyi, Krisztián (1974-2017), a Hungarian rhino ecologist, helped save the rhino population at Majete Game Reserve and Liwonde National Park in Malawi, and then assisted in the reintroduction of rhinos to Rwanda. He was killed, age 43, by a rhino while training Rwandan rangers in Akagera National Park to track and protect the animals.

Halberg, Hans-Wilhelm (1963-1987), marine biologist from the University of Kiel in Germany, killed, age 24, with a large group of others in a terrorist attack in Djibouti while waiting to board a three-month expedition of the German research vessel Meteor in the Indian Ocean.

Daniel Hamilton

Hamilton, Daniel (1990-2011), reptile biologist from Purdue University, died, age 21, of heat stroke while volunteering in the Cayman Islands.

Hamilton, W.D. (1936-2000), brilliant evolutionary theorist, after an expedition to war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, to study the origins of HIV, age 63, of multiple organ failure brought on by malaria.

Harrisson, Tom (1912–1976), British anthropologist and ornithologist, age 64, bus accident in Thailand.

Hasselquist, Fredric(1722–1752), Swedish “apostle” of Linnaeus’s, made extensive collections in the Middle East, died, age 30, near Smyrna, of tuberculosis.

Van hasselt

Hasselt, Johann Coenraad van(1797–1823), Dutch ornithologist, age 26, of an unknown tropical illness in Java.

Hearn, Mike (1972-2005) conservationist, died, age 32, in a surfing accident off Swakopmond, between stints in the field with the Save The Rhino Trust, Northern Namibia.

Helfer, Johann Wilhelm (1810–1840), Czech-born naturalist,  murdered, age 29, by poison dart in the Andaman Islands.

Hellwig, Franz Carl (1861-1889), German botanist, assistant in the Botanic Garden of Breslau 1883-84, later appointed botanist of the German New Guinea Company as Kelana Station, in New Guinea, where he died, age 28, of dysentery.

Hemphill, Henry(1830–1914), American naturalist studying shells, age 84, of arsenic poisoning.

Hemprich, Wilhelm(1796–1825), surgeon in the Prussian army, naturalist, leader of a five-year expedition to Egypt and nearby countries, collecting 3000 plant and 4000 animal species, on which nine team members died, including Hemprich, age 28, probably of malaria, in Eritrea.

Hendee, Russell W.(1899–1929), mammalogist collecting for the Field Museum’s Kelley-Roosevelts Expedition, age 30, of malaria in Vientiane.

Herald, Earl S. (1914-1973), ichthyologist, died, age 59, in a diving accident off Cabo San Lucas.

Hernandez-Camacho, Jorge Ignacio (1935-2002) authority on all things neotropical, died, age 67, from a heart attack while visiting a mangrove swamp near Cartagena, Colombia.  The 3,850 hectare area was later protected and named in his honor Santuario de Fauna y Flora El Corochal “El Mono Hernandez”  Several plant and animal species have also been named in honor of “Mono” or “El Sabio” Hernandez .

Higashi, Masahiko (1954-2000), termite ecologist at Kyoto University, drowned, age  45, when their small boat was caught in a storm during an expedition on the Sea of Cortez.

Higashiguchi, Jenni M. (1981-2011), a University of Missouri ecologist studying infectious diseases in wildlife, was doing fieldwork in the Galapagos when she suddenly became ill and died, age 30, of acute liver failure, due to unknown causes.

Hodgdon, Albion (1909-1976), a botanist who specialized in finding new locations of species in the state of New Hampshire.  His death, age 65, resulted from injuries sustained in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, cutting short his life’s ambition to complete the flora of New Hampshire

Hoffmann, Ralph (1870-1932), botanist and ornithologist, director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, fell from a cliff on San Miguel Island, California while collecting plants, age 62.

Hofmann, Ursula  (1941-2004), plant anatomist and lecturer at the University of Göttingen, died, age 63, while leading a botanical excursion to Madeira for pensioners. She stepped backwards in front of the group she was addressing and fell off a cliff.

Holden, Edith (1871-1920), British naturalist and  illustrator, most famous for Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, fell into the River Thames at Kew and drowned, age 49, while collecting blossom from a horse chestnut tree for an illustration.

Tom Hollowell

Hollowell, Thomas H. (1954?-2018), was a botanist and informatics specialist whose field work was primarily in the mangroves of Northwest Guyana.  He was struck and killed, age 64, in a hit-and-run incident while biking to work at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “He was warm, generous, and kind-hearted,” a colleague notes.

Hoshino

Hoshino, Michio (1952-1996), celebrated Japanese wildlife photographer, killed, age 44, when a brown bear attacked him in his tent, while he was on assignment in Kurilskoye Lake, Kamchatka, Russia.  A faked photo of the attack circulated on the internet.  A memorial totem pole to Hoshino was recently erected in Sitka, Alaska.

Hovenkamp, Peter (1953-2019), a Dutch botanist specializing in ferns, was caught in a flash flood, swept away, and drowned, age 66, during a tour of Gunung Mulu National Park in Sabah.

Hovore, Frank T.  (1945-2006), coleopterist, age 61, on a collecting expedition in Ecuador, of a heart attack.

Howell, James C. (19??-1985), an Antioch College biologist, died in a plane crash on an ornithological trip in Antarctica.

Hreblay, Márton (1963-2000), entomologist,  killed in a car accident, age 37, while collecting Lepidoptera (Noctuidae) in northern Thailand.

Hunstein, Carl  (1843-1888), was a German natural history specimen collector specializing in birds and plants, who discovered the Blue Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea rudolphi), among other species. He was killed, age 45, in a tsunami caused when Ritter Island volcano, off the western end of New Britain, collapsed and largely disappeared beneath the sea. The Hunstein Mountains and several bird and plant species are named in his honor.

Hunt, David Bassil (1934- 1985), a British ornithologist, working mainly in the Isles of Scilly, was killed, age 51, by a tiger while leading a tour  in Jim Corbett National Park, India.

Hussain, Wahid (1998-2023), an ethnobotanist, specialized in medicinal use of plants for human and livestock healthcare from unexplored regions. He was working in isolated villages in the mountains Kurram District of northwest Pakistan when he was murdered, age 25, together with other schoolteachers and drivers, in a massacre committed by religious extremists.

Igag, Paul (1984-2010),  New Guinea’s premiere ornithologist, known to his many students as “Uncle Paul,” made important discoveries about Palm Cockatoos and Vulturine Parrots that continue to guide conservation of these threatened species. He was recently featured in the Nature show “Birds of the Gods.” Igag died, age 46, of a heart attack.

Innes, H. Stuart (1953-2000), an arctic mammalogist,  died in a helicopter crash, age 47, in the Canadian High Arctic while returning from a day spent tracking and tagging polar bears.

Irwin, Stephen Robert (1962–2006)  Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist, co-discovered a turtle now named in his honor Elseya irwini, died, age 44, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Jacquemont, Victor(1801–1832), French botanist in India, age 31, of dysen­tery or malaria.

Jussieu, Joseph de (1704–1779), doctor and botanist on the Geodesic Mission to the Equator (1735-1744), made the first scientific study of the cinchona (quinine) tree; at age 75, of mercury poisoning and infection.

Kabochi

Kabochi, Paul Gathingi (1943-2003), assistant at National Museums of Kenya and guide for Jonathan Kingdon, Duane Schlitter and other mammalogists, killed by elephants while habituating a colony of dwarf mongooses, before a BBC film shoot in Tsavo, Kenya.

Kakule, Safari (19??-2011), ranger working on gorilla protection on the Congo side of Virunga National Park, killed, age unknown, along with two other rangers and five soldiers, all so far unnamed, when rebels fired a rocket-propelled grenade into their vehicle.  More than 120 rangers have been killed over the past ten years because of the continuing war in the Congo.  Further information welcome.

Kalko, 2010

Kalko, Elisabeth (1962-2011), German tropical ecologist and bat specialist, died suddenly in her sleep, age 49, cause unknown, soon after arriving at a research station at the foot of Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania.  She was featured in the BBC series “Bat Women of Panama.”

Kaplanov, Lev (1910-1943), the first researcher of Siberian tiger biology in the wild, killed by poachers in Ussuriland.

Kárpáti, István (1924-1989), a botanist at the University of Keszthely, western Hungary, suffered a heart attack and died, age 65, while participating in an International Phytogeographic Excursion to Poland.

Kaufmann, Rudolf (1909-1941), German paleontologist, made early contributions to the study of allopatric speciation, and was a pioneering thinker on punctuated equilibrium, persecuted by Nazi Germany for his Jewish heritage, shot, age 32?, by guards in Lithuania while trying to flee.

Kempff, Noel Mercado (1924-1986), Bolivian biologist, was scouting out a new national park in Santa Cruz department when his group landed at what they thought was an abandoned airstrip.  It turned out to be a cocaine factory.  He was murdered, age 62, and the national park was subsequently named for him.

Kennicott, Robert (1835–1866) American naturalist, member of the Megatherium Club at the Smithsonian Institution, died in the field, age 30, leading the Scientific Corps of the Russia-American (Western Union) Telegraphic Survey in Alaska.

Keultjes, Gerrit Laurens (1786-1821), a painter from Utrecht, joined the Dutch Natural History Commission to the East Indies in 1820, to illustrate the materials being collected by expedition scientists Heinrich Kuhl and Johan Coenraad van Hasselt.  The strain of climbing in the mountains around Bogor in Java, combined with some unknown tropical disease, killed Keultjes, age 34. Kuhl had died two days early, and two years later, van Hasselt also died on the expedition.

Kielland, Jan (1923 – 1995), author of Butterflies of Tanzania, spent 50 years studying butterflies across Tanzania, described and published 144 taxa of Afrotropical butterflies.  He was killed, age 72, when his car hit a stranded lorry in the dark on his way to get permits for a survey in southern Tanzania.

Kilbourn, Annelisa (1967-2002), Wildlife Conservation Society researcher studying the link between ebola virus and western lowland gorillas, died, age 35, when her small plane crashed in the Lope Nature Preserve in Gabon.

Kilham, Peter (1943-1989),  University of Michigan professor and an expert in phytoplankton ecology and in the ecology of African lakes, who suddenly died, age 46, of a perforated ulcer during a research trip in Kenya.

Anthony King

King, Anthony (1968-2013), bush pilot and advocate for Kenya wildlife conservation groups, especially the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, killed, age 44, when the light plane he was flying crashed into Mount Kenya Forest in bad weather.

Kingsley, Mary H. (1862–1900), British explorer, ichthyologist, age 37, of typhoid fever in South Africa.

Kirkaldy, George Willis (1873–1910), entomologist working on Hemipterans in Hawaii, known for coining generic names after supposed romantic interests (Elachisme–pronounced “kiss me”–Peggichisme, Polychisme, etc),  hit by an automobile in Honolulu while riding a horse on the wrong side of the road and broke his leg. He was sent to California to have his leg reset and died, age 38, in the operating room.

Kirouac, Joseph Louis Conrad (1885-1944), known as Brother Marie-Victorin, founder of the Botanical Garden in Montréal, educator and author of a major Flora for the southern region of the Province of Québec, died in a car accident, age 58, on a plant collecting trip.  Possibly related to author Jack Kerouac.

Kishinouye, Kamakichi (1867-1929), Japanese fisheries and corals biologist, died, age 61, of “some alimentary disorder” during an expedition collecting freshwater fishes in Sichuan Province, China.   The death notice in Science described him, curiously, as “a good example of the courteous Japanese gentleman of the old school.”

Klimeš, Leoš (1960-2007), Czech arachnologist, disappeared, age 47, on an expedition to Ladakh in the Himalayas.

Knakis, Uldis (1939-1970), Latvian wildlife biologist, killed, age 31, by poachers taking saigas in Russia’s Kalmyk steppes.

Köenig, Johann Gerhard (1728–1785), Polish-born physician and student of Linnaeus who introduced the Linnaean system to India, age 57, cause unknown.

Koepcke, Maria (1924-1971), German-born neotropical ornithologist, curator at the Natural History Museum in Lima, wrote and illustrated Las Aves del Departamento de Lima ( The Birds of the Department of Lima), killed, age 47, in an airplane crash over Amazonia. She had been flying with her 17-year-old daughter, Juliane,  to join husband and father Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke at a field station in Amazonia for the Christmas holiday.  Juliane, the sole survivor of the crash,  fell thousands of feet while still strapped to her chair, then  managed to walk for 10 days, always following waterways downhill, as her parents had taught her to do if lost. Juliane, now a mammalogist, is the subject of a Werner Herzog film; her own memoir When I Fell From the Sky is being published in German, in March, 2011.  Maria Koepcke has been honored by having three birds named in her honor: Koepcke’s Screech Owl, Koepcke’s Hermit, and the Selva Cacique (Cacicus koepckeae, see Gerhart, Nathaniel G.).

Kotaseao

Kotaseao, Vickson (????-2004), a research associate at the Wei Institute in Papua New Guinea and the first person to discover the larva  of the jewel beetle genus Calodema, he was brutally murdered, age unknown, in an ambush while on duty at the Institute.  The species Calodema vicksoni was named in his honor, and according to a note in the description, it also brought misfortune to the original collector:  “The holotype was captured by a native lady who found this specimen feeding on flowers near her house in the jungle in a very remote location in the Owen Stanley Range.  She caught the beetle and gave it to her husband.  Sadly enough, shortly afterwards she was bitten by a Papuan Blacksnake and died.”

Kramer, Christian Carl (1732-1764). Danish physician and zoologist on a quarrelsome and ill-fated multinational expedition to Arabia with Forsskål and others.  He discovered and disclosed that one of the other scientists aboard, the ethnologist Christian von Haven, intended to murder them by arsenic poisoning and steal their funds.  Of the five scientists, four died of other causes, among them Kramer, age 32, of fever (probably malaria), in Bombay. Only the young mapmaker Carl Niebhur survived, ostensibly thanks to his adoption of local habits and dress.

Kramer, Gustav(1910–1959), German ornithologist, was attempting to cap­ture young rock doves from a nest when he lost his footing and fell to his death, age 49, in southern Italy.

Kuhl

Kuhl, Heinrich (1797–1821), German ornithologist, age 23, in Java, of an unknown tropical disease.

Kuzmier, Kerrie (1961-1992), a recent graduate of the Duke University School of the Environment, was working to integrate ecotourism with environmental preservation in Costa Rica.  She died, age 30, in a plane crash in Costa Rica while traveling to a remote National Park.

Lawson, John (1674-1711), British-born early naturalist in North America, burned at the stake, about age 37,  by angry Indians near what is now Snow Hill, North Carolina.  He wrote A New Voyage to Carolina.

Lees, Andrew (1949-1994), an environmental activist, went missing while in Madagascar to make a film about a Rio Tinto Group plan to stripmine an area of coastal forest. He was later found and determined to have died, age 45, of heat exhaustion.

Leitão Filho, Hermógenes de Freitas (1946-1996), Brazilian botanist of a heart attack during field research.

Leitner, Edward F. (1812–1838), German-born physician and botanist, col­lector for Audubon and Bachman, shot by Indians, age 26, near Jupiter Inlet, Florida.

Leopold, Aldo (1887-1948), father of wildlife ecology who helped found The Wildlife Society and the Wilderness Society, died of a heart attack, age 61, while battling a wildfire on his neighbor’s property.

Less, Nándor (1963-1993), a geographer, botanist, and athlete from the University of Debrecen, eastern Hungary, specialized in mapping mountain vegetation. He returned home from a trip to the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda with malaria and died, age 30, after it was misdiagnosed as influenza.

Lockwood, Tom E. (1941-1975),  botanist at the University of Illinois-Urbana, monographer of the genus Brugmansia, died, age 34, in an auto accident in Mexico during a field trip with students.

Löfling, Pehr (1729 – 1756),  an “apostle” of Linnaeus, he was the first naturalist to make careful observations about the flora and fauna in Venezuela, and probably the first person to bring a microscope there. Linnaeus later published the Iter Hispanicum based on Löfling’s notes.  He died on expedition there, probably of malaria or yellow fever.

Loftus-Hills, Jasper (1946?-1974) , a post-doc at the University of Michigan, from New Victoria, Australia, who died in a car accident, age 28, on a trip collecting frogs in Texas.  Eleutherodactylus jasperi is named in his honor.  Biologist Joan E. Strassman, a passenger in the vehicle, reports that they were parked at the side of the road when “a pickup truck driving along the shoulder side-swiped the car, killing Jasper instantly and throwing him far along the road into the ditch. Marty [Condon] and I only saw the taillights and felt the car rock, but did not know right away what had happened.  Afterwards was a typical Texas story of unfriendly cops, a restaurant that refused to let us in because we didn’t have shoes on, then a complete failure to prosecute the well-known local bumpkin and drunk who didn’t even have a driver’s license.”

López León, Nora (1979?-2019), a biologist and environmentalist, was working on reproduction of the scarlet macaw at Aluxes Ecotourism Park in Chiapas, a Mexican state which has become notorious for illegal logging and trafficking in wildlife.  She was stabbed to death, age 40, at a hostel in Palenque, where another environmental activist, José Luis Álvarez Flores, was murdered this June.

Lothian, Norman Veitch (1889- 1925), Scottish medical entomologist with the League of Nations Malaria Commission‚ killed, age 35, in the same car accident with Samuel Darling in Beirut, while researching malaria mosquito epidemiology in the Middle East.   The Lothian Scholarship and Darling Prize for malaria research were created in their honor.

Lotter, Wayne (1966?-2017), South African conservationist who fought rampant elephant poaching in Tanzania, assassinated, age 51, in Dar es Salaam. Colleagues credited him with helping in the arrest of “1,398 poachers and ivory traffickers in recent years, 78% of whom were convicted.”

Lynn, Denis (1947-2018), marine biologist at the University of Guelph and later at the University of British Columbia, expert in the ecology of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ciliates, hit by a large wave and carried to his death, age 71, while doing tide pool biodiversity research at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia.

Macklot, Heinrich(1799–1832), naturalist, was so enraged when insurgents burned down his house, with all of his collections, that he organized a revenge attack and was speared to death, age 33, in Java.

Maconochie, John R. (1941–1984), Australian botanist who died in a motor vehicle accident, age 43, while consulting in Oman.

Maehr, David (1956-2008) ) conservation biologist at the University of Kentucky died, age 52, in a plane crash whole tracking radio collared black bears in Lake Placid, Florida.

Magraner, Jordi (1959-2002), Spanish zoologist, quit his position at the  National Museum of Natural History in Paris to undertake independent research into the Barmanu, a hominid-like creature thought by local people to inhabit the remote Chitral Mountains of northwestern Pakistan.  He was living among the  marginalized Kalash people, who considered him their protector, and he ignored warnings by Pakistani officials to leave the area when the instability following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan spilled over to this area.  He was murdered, age 43, along with his 12-year old assistant, by two of his former Afghan assistants, who slit his throat for reasons that remain unclear.  He was buried by the Kalash in the local town of Bumburet.

Javier Maldonado

Maldonado, Javier (1977?-2019), a fish biologist at Xavierian University in Bogotá, Colombia, drowned, age 42, following a boating accident on the Vaupés River. He had been working to build a database of freshwater fish as part of the Amazon Fish Project.

Maldonado, Juan Black (1946-1996), Ecuadorean naturalist and conservationist, died, age 50, of skin cancer, said to have been brought on by the combination of his pale-skinned Irish heritage and a lifetime of fieldwork in the sun in the Galapagos, the high altitudes of Volcano Antisana, and elsewhere.

Maness, Scott Jay (1948-1981), reptile biologist with the Peace Corps and then with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for whom he was working at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida when a lightning strike caused a wildfire there.   He was working with crew member Beau Sauselein using a tractor and a fireplow to cut a fireline when the wind shifted, driving the fire toward them.  As they attempted to move away, the tractor got caught on a stump.  They tried to flee on foot but the thick palmetto grass blocked them and they were burned to death in the blaze.  Maness was 32, Sauselein was 33.

Manikandan, S. (1972-2018), elephant conservator and field director at Nagarhole Tiger Preserve in Karnataka State, India, was gored and trampled by an elephant and died instantly, age 45.

Marchessaux, Didier (1957-1988), pioneer in research on the endangered Mediterranean monk seal, responsible for creating the Cap Blanc Reserve in Mauritania, died, age 31, when his car drove over a land mine in the Western Sahara.

Marcgraf, Georg (1610–1644), a German physician and naturalist, was celebrated for his work on the natural history of Brazil, produced on an expedition for the Dutch West Indies Company. He died on a later expedition in Angola, age 34, probably of malaria. There is a detailed account of his life, though with an emphasis on astronomy here.

Marsh, Clive (1951-2000), field biologist instrumental in establishing the Tana River Primate Reserve in Kenya and the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, age 49, from an encephalitis-related illness acquired during field work in Laos.

Martin, Shannon (1978-2001), a University of Kansas graduate student collecting fern specimens, stabbed to death in Costa Rica, age 23.

Martínez, Antonio (1922-1993), South America’s premier beetle researcher, died, age 71, with his wife in a car accident in Bolivia, while on an insect collecting trip.

 

Maskey, Tirtha (1948-2006), one of the world’s leading experts on crocodiles and rhinoceroses, who had also discovered a new frog species, killed, age 58, in a helicopter crash that  took the lives of 24 people, many of them World Wildlife Fund conservationists, in eastern Nepal.

Matapi and Franco, 2014

Matapí, Daniel (19??-2014), an indigenous leader who worked with the Amazon Conservation Team-Colombia to identify isolated tribes and protect their habitat, died when the Piper PA-31 Navajo crashed after takeoff from Araracuara in the department of Caquetá.

Maxwell-Lefroy, Harold (1877–1925). British entomologist in India and a professor of entomology at the Imperial College in South Kensington, London, died, age 48, from the effects of a lethal gas with which he was experimenting for use as an insecticide.

McKay, Charles Leslie (1855-1883), Wisconsin-born naturalist who collected in Alaska for the Smithsonian’s Spencer Fullerton Baird.  McKay discovered McKay’s Bunting in 1882.  He died the following year, age 28, in suspicious circumstances on a solo canoe  trip.  His body was never recovered.

Melly, André (1802-1851), was a Swiss merchant and keen entomologist. His Coleopteran collection was at one time considered the most important in the world.  The 370 entomological drawers are now part of the Natural History Museum of Geneva. Melly died of a fever, age 49, while on a collecting trip from Egypt into Sudan.

Meneses, Elias (19??-1979), botanist, about age 50, of malaria contracted in Pando Department (Bolivia) while collecting tree specimens.

Menkens, George (1957-1990), bear researcher, disappeared, age 33, during a polar bear monitoring flight over the Arctic Ocean 240 miles northwest of Point Barrow, Alaska.

Mertens, Robert (1894-1975), herpetologist, specialized in lizards, particularly island and tropical species, namesake of Mertensian mimicry, a rare form in which a deadly species mimics a less dangerous one, died, age 81, of a twig snake bite.

Messier,  Jeanne (1966-1993), a University of California at San Diego graduate student in biology, lived in a cabin infested with rodents while studying birds at California’s Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve. She died, age 27, of hantavirus.

Metallinou

Metallinou, Margarita (1986-2015), was a Villanova University researcher specializing in desert-dwelling reptiles. She was working in Zambia’s Kafue National Park, when an elephant trampled her to death, age 29.  On seeing the elephant charging, she screamed and alerted colleagues, who managed to escape injury.

Meyer

Meyer, Frank N. (1875–1918), American plant explorer, made four expedi­tions to China. Heading homeward down the Yangtze River at a time of political turmoil, he disappeared, age 43, from his ship and his body was recovered a week later.

Michaud, Luigi (1973?-2014), a University of Messina research fellow seeking new antibiotics for cystic fibrosis, he died, age 40, in a diving accident in Antarctica while collecting marine bacteria.

Michaux, Andre (1746-1802) French botanist, wrote the first book on  trees of North America, also explored in England, France, and Persia, lost notes and specimens in an 1801 shipwreck off Holland, and died the following year in Madagascar, age 56, of tropical fever.

Miller, Waldron DeWitt (1879-1929), ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History,  killed in a motorcycle accident just before completing a full account of the birds of Nicaragua.  See this note for the series of tragedies that afflicted the course of ornithology in Nicaragua.

Mitchell, Joseph (1948-2019), was a herpetologist specializing in turtles and reptile conservation, and a research associate of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. He was killed, age 71, when he was hit by a truck on stepping onto a highway and bending down to pick up what was almost certainly a turtle in need of rescue.

Miyata, Ken (1951-1983) an expert on diversity in lizards who traveled frequently in South America, but fell victim to his passion for fly-fishing.  He drowned, age 32, while angling alone on the Big Horn River in Wyoming.

Monteiro, Luis R. (1962-1999), a leading seabird expert from the University of the Azores, died in the crash of an inter-island flight while pursuing his research, age 37.  Monteiro’s storm-petrel (Oceanodroma monteiroi) is named in his memory.

Moorcroft, William(1765–1825), British veterinary surgeon and plant-collector in Tibet and Kashmir, also reputed to be a secret agent, age 60, murdered in Afghanistan.

Mora, Jairo (1987-2013), a marine turtle conservationist, age 26, he was kidnapped while patrolling leatherback turtle nesting sites on a beach in Limon, Costa Rica.  His kidnappers, who were apparently raiding nests to sell the eggs, tied up the four volunteers working with Mora.  Then they took him away, tied his hands behind his back, beat him,  dragged him behind his vehicle, and finally shot him in the head.

Mosauer, Walter (1905-1937) Austrian-born zoologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, died, age 32, of blood poisoning–septicemia–on a field trip to study reptiles in Mexico.

Mou, Chen (陈谋) (1903–1935) was one of the founders of China’s first botanical gardens catalogued according to the scientific system of species naming, in Zhejiang.  He died of an unknown illness, age 32 during a collecting trip through southern Yunnan Province. He and a fellow botanist collected more than 3000 specimens on that expedition, and though many were destroyed during the Japanese invasion of China, others survive at the Kunming Institute of Botany.

Mulotwa, Emile Masumbuko (1962-2011), researcher at the University of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, specialist of the Congo Peacock (Afropavo congensis), aged 48, died in a hospital in Kinshasa, where he was taken to be treated after the Hewa Bora Airways plane crash in Kisangani.

Muncus-Nagy

Muncus-Nagy, Mihai (1978-2012), a Romanian conservationist, he volunteered to work protecting native species on New Zealand’s remote Raoul Island, where he vanished, age 33, in an apparent drowning.

Mys, Benoit (1960-1989), a Belgian Phd student, was doing fieldwork for his PhD thesis on the zoogeography of the skink fauna of northern Papua New Guinea, when he was killed, age 28, in a vehicle accident on the north coast highway.  An expedition in his footsteps is planned for spring of 2014, to find some of the new snake species he discovered.

Nakano, Shigeru (1962-2000), aquatic ecologist studying food webs, died age 38, in Baja California on the same boat accident that killed the scorpion ecologist Gary Polis.

Nakhasathien, Seub (1948–1990), a Thai forester and ecologist, devoted his career to protecting the Thungyai Naresuan and Huay Kha Kaeng Western Forest Complex, along the border with Myanmar. He died, age 41, of a self-inflicted gunshot, at a time of deep frustration with non-payment of staff and other bureaucratic issues, as well as the killing of employees by encroachers. According to the Bankok Post, Nakhasathien turned Thungyai Naresuan “into a sacrosanct site and inspired many youth to become forest patrol staff.”

Anjeli Nathan

Nathan, Anjeli (1975-1999) killed, age 24, in a car accident in South Africa, where she was studying meerkats.

Natterer, Johann (1787–1843), Vienna-born zoologist, survived 18 years col­lecting in Brazil, but died at home, age 56, of pulmonary hemorrhage, while working up his extensive collection.

Nelson, David (17?? – 1789), British plant collector, botanist on Cook’s third voyage and Bligh’s “HMS Bounty” expedition, stayed with Bligh loyalists and survived for seven weeks crossing the Pacific in an open boat with little food or water.  On arrival in Kupang (Koepang), Timor, in present-day Indonesia, he went botanizing in nearby mountains despite his weakened condition. He came down with a fever and died there, age unknown. There is no record of his early life, or even the date of his birth. No portraits of him from life survive. The acanthus genus Nelsonia is named for him. Actor Simon Chandler portrayed him in the 1984 movie “The Bounty.”

Nevermann

Neme, Matthew Matamala (1984-2011), Universidad de los Andes biology student murdered, age 26, by the ring leader of a drug gang while filming and photographing the biodiversity of area known as “La Camaronera,” in San Bernardo de Viento, in Cordoba, Colombia.

Nevermann. William Heinrich (1881-1938), entomologist, killed, age 57, while hunting ants by lantern with a colleague at night in Costa Rica. He was shot by a neighbor who thought the lights of the two lanterns were the eyes of a puma.  (Obituary by Anon. 1938, Entomological News 49: 239-240.

Nikitine, Pavlik (1965-1992), a recent graduate of the Duke University School of the Environment, was working with Wildlife Conservation International to manage a wildlife preserve in Bolivia.  He died, age 27, in a plane crash in Costa Rica while traveling to a remote National Park.

Nikolaenko. Vitaly (1938-2003), zoologist at Kronotsky Nature Reserve, Kamchatka, and a world-famous nature photographer, killed, age 66, by a brown bear. He had conducted the investigation of the death by a brown bear of Michio Honshino.

Northrop, Alice Rich (1864‒1922) and Northrop, John Isaiah  (1861‒1891) were a married couple.  She taught botany at Hunter College, he taught botany and zoology at Columbia University. Soon after their marriage in 1889, they spent seven months in the Bahamas collecting animal, plant and mineral specimens, then the most extensive natural history survey undertaken there. John died in a laboratory explosion in 1891, age 30, just two weeks before the birth of their only child.  When Alice later finished her analysis of the botanical material from the Bahamas expedition, she found she had discovered 18 new species. A Naturalist in the Bahamas (1910) was a collection of John’s and Alice’s papers, edited by Henry Fairfield Osborn, and published under the names of  Osborn  and John (but, oddly, not Alice) Northrop.    She continued to travel widely in the Americas with their son, John Howard Northrop (1891‒1987), who would later win a Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1946).  Alice Northrop was working to establish a nature camp in Massachusetts when she died, age 56, after her car stalled on a level crossing and was hit by a train

Nove, Josh (1974-1997), a birder from Ipswich, MA, was leading Earthwatch volunteers on a mission to band Arctic Tern and Mew Gull chicks on Mother Goose Lake in the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. Some of the chicks bailed out of their nest into the glacial waters of Volcano Creek and Josh pursued them, likely worried about their safety.  He stepped into deep water and drowned, age 23.

Ooi, Inn-Siang (1962-1986) a PhD student in botany at University of Miami from Malaysia, died, age 24, of stings from Africanized honey bees during an Organization for Tropical Studies field course in Costa Rica.  He became stuck in a crevice and when his body was retrieved, he had sustained 8000 stings.

Van Oort

Oort, Pieter van(1804–1834), artist who made numerous illustrations of landscapes, people, animals, and plants for the Dutch Natural History Commission in the East Indies, age 30, in Sumatra, of malaria.

Ortiz-Crespo, Fernando (1942-2001), Ecuadorian ornithologist who died in a boating accident, age 59, while studying birds on an Andean lake.

Ortiz, Patricia (1973-2013), ant biologist from Ecuador, killed by falling rocks, age 40, while working with students at a waterfall in Costa Rica. University of Utah myrmecologist John Longino recently named a new species from Monteverde Cloud Forest, where she had worked, after Ortiz, calling her “a brilliant naturalist whose untimely death saddened the Monteverde community.”

Pambu (18??-1898), a Lepcha collector working with William Doherty, “murdered by the savages” on Japen Island, West Irian Jaya.  See Cowan, C.F. (1967) Lakatt and Pambu: Lepcha explorers. Journal of the Bombay Natural History society 64(2):381-384.

Parker, Ted (1953–1993), American ornithologist, age 40, killed in a plane crash in the mountains of Ecuador.  Here’s a brief biography.

Parkinson, Sydney (1745–1771), artist on Cook’s Endeavour, at sea, age 26, of dysentery.

Pawlowski, Bogumil (1898-1971), a Polish botanist, died suddenly, age 73, on an expedition to to Mount Olympus in Greece, after losing his balance on a slope where he wanted to collect a plant he has never seen before. About a dozen plants are named after him as pawlowskii or pawlowskianum to honor his contributions to botany.

Payne, Aaron (1986?-2018), an Australian herpetologist with expertise in frogs, hiked alone into the bush in Royal National Park and is presumed dead, age 32.

Peale, Raphaelle (1774–1825), American artist and naturalist, age 51, of arsenic and mercury poisoning from his taxidermy work in the family museum.

Norm Penny

Penny, Norman Dale (1946-2016), an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences, who described 9 genera and 164 species of insects, suffered a stroke after a day in the field collecting specimens of Mecoptera (scorpion flies) with his wife near Quincy,  California. He died, age 70, the following day.

Petersen, Erik (1918-1961) Danish ornithologist, died age 43, of an allergic reaction to a wasp sting, on the island of Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines.

Pirat, Céline (1982-2015), a specialist in ethnobotany doing fieldwork in West Africa, died, age 32, when the medical rescue flight on which she was a patient crashed on approach to Dakar, Senegal.

Plee, August (1787-1825), an explorer naturalist for the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris, he died, age 38, from an unknown sickness in Martinique, after sending botanical specimens back to France.

Pliny The Elder, Gaius (23-79 A.D.), Roman naturalist, author of the encyclopedic (though sometimes highly imaginary) Historia Naturalis, died, age 56, supposedly of toxic fumes, when scientific curiosity caused him to get too close during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Plowman, Timothy (1944-1989), eminent Amazonian ethnobotanist for the Field Museum in Chicago, died of AIDS, age 45, reportedly as a result  a dirty needle  used in mandatory “pre-trip inoculations” for yellow fever, at the border of Venezuela or Peru.

Pokluda, Pavel (1990-2012), a Czech entomologist working on his dissertation at the University of South Bohemia, was collecting ground beetles in Papua New Guinea when he died, age 26, after falling into a ravine in the Finisterre mountain range.

Polis, Gary (1946-2000), University of California at Davis scorpion researcher, drowned, age 53, with three others, when their small boat was caught in a storm during an expedition on the Sea of Cortez.

Posa Bohome, Claudio (1965-2010), a botanist at the Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial, he became acutely ill while on a biodiversity expedition to the Gran Caldera de Luba, in the remote southern part of Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, and died, age 44, soon after being evacuated to hospital.

Poudel, Narayan (1953-2006), former national park manager, recently amed head of Nepal’s wildlife and national parks department, killed, age 53, in a helicopter crash that took the lives of 24 people, many of them World Wildlife Fund conservationists, in eastern Nepal.

Prahl, Henry von (1948-1989), an expert on marine crustaceans, mangroves and coral reefs, was killed, age 41,when the plane in which he was traveling from Bogota to Cali was destroyed by a bomb.  Pablo Escobar of the Medellín drug cartel had been attempting  to kill presidential candidate César Gaviria Trujillo.  Gaviria missed the flight and served as president from 1990-1993.

Przhevalsky, Nikolai Mikhaylovich (1839–1888), Polish-Russian explorer, discoverer of only wild horse species, of typhus, age 49, in Kyrgyzstan.

Raalten, Gerrit van (1797–1829), Dutch artist with naturalists in Java, sur­vived a rhino attack but succumbed, age 32, to fever.

Raddi, Giuseppe(1770–1829), Italian botanist, herpetologist in Brazil, age 59, of dysentery at Rhodes, during an expedition to the Nile.

Rafiński, Jan (1943-2003), naturalist, evolutionary biologist and herpetologist, died, age 60, of a heart attack during field work on a newt hybrid zone in the Magurski National Park, in southern Poland.

Raim, Arlo (1943-2010), a legendary birder for the Illinois Natural History Survey, hit by train and killed, age 67, while monitoring the effect of increased train traffic on cardinals in a DuPage County forest preserve.  “He was a bit eccentric,” said a co-worker, “but a very kind and committed person to nature and to understanding nature.”

Ramsay, Malcolm (1949-2000), an evolutionary ecologist and naturalist,  died in a helicopter crash, age 51, in the Canadian High Arctic while returning from a day spent tracking and tagging polar bears.

Rankin, Peter (1956-1979), a young Australian herpetologist, died, age 23, of unknown causes, while collecting reptiles in New Caledonia, shortly after his graduation from Macquarie University.

Rawlinson, Peter (1943-1991), an Australian herpetologist who described several new species of reptiles, he was also a vigorous environmental campaigner. He died, age 48, from heat exhaustion while engaged in fieldwork on the island of Anak Krakatau, Indonesia. The Peter Rawlinson Conservation Award, named in his honor, now acknowledges outstanding contributions to conservation in Australia. Two skinks are also named for him: Ctenotus rawlinsoni (Ingram 1979) and Pseudemoia rawlinsoni (Hutchinson and Donnellan 1988).

Raymond, Bev (1952?-2005), age 53, an Environment Canada inland waters biologist, died at Devil’s Lake, British Columbia when her pilot misjudged the height and hit the water hard, flipping the helicopter upside down. Raymond was struck in the head and knocked unconscious by a rotor blade which came into the cockpit.  She never surfaced.

Reimer, Daryl (19??-1992), prominent Queensland seabird scientist who disappeared at sea, age unknown, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, while surveying remote seabird islands.

Richmond, Thomas (17??-1769), a black servant and specimen collector for botanist Joseph Banks aboard Capt. Cook’s HMS Endeavour, he was frozen to death, age unknown, on Banks’s ill-considered collecting expedition in Tierra del Fuego.

Ricketts, Edward F. (1897-1948), marine biologist, author of  Between Pacific Tides, killed, age 50, by a train at an intersection in Monterey, California.

Riley, Charles Valentine (1843-1895), one of the greatest North American entomologists, “the father of biological control,” died in a bicycle accident, age 52.

Roberts, J. Austin (1883‒1948) was the most prominent ornithologist in southern Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. In four decades working at the Transvaal Museum, he amassed 30,000 bird skins and 9,000 mammal specimens there.  He died, age 65, in a traffic accident in the Transkei region. Roberts is best remembered for his Birds of South Africa (1940), a landmark publication in African ornithology which has developed in size and authority with repeated posthumous editions.  His Mammals or South Africa (1951) was published posthumously.  The Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary was established in his hometown, Pretoria (1958).

Rebeyst

Robeyst, Jana (1989-2016), a scientist doing research for the Wildlife Conservation Society on forest elephants at Mbeli Bai, Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Republic of the Congo, died, age 26, after she was charged by an elephant while she was working with a team of fellow conservationists there.

Robinson, Charles Budd (1871-1913), a botanist, murdered, age 42, “in self-defense” by people who mistook him for a ghoul intent on decapitating people, while collecting plants on Ambon in what is now eastern Indonesia.  (The ghoul defense may sound unlikely.  But other European explorers–Wallace, Du Chaillu, Cuming–also reported that terrified locals sometimes mistook them for ghosts on account of their unnaturally pale skin.  The tendency of naturalists to work late into the night preserving specimens–cadavers–by candlelight may have compounded this impression of ghoulishness.  The one jarring detail is that Ambon had been comfortably tolerating the habits of naturalists since Rumphius arrived there in the 1650s.)  A biographical note is at p. 191 here.

Rodríguez De la Fuente, Félix (1928-1980), celebrated Spanish broadcaster and naturalist, died, age 52,  in a plane crash on assignment in Alaska.

Roepstorff, Frederik Adolph de (1842 – 1883), entomologist, ornithologist and anthropologist, shot dead, age 41, in the Andaman Islands

Rogers, Erick Joseph (1982-2005), a Texas A&M field technician, was working on a study of the crabs eaten by whooping cranes at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, when his boat drifted away from the research site. Rogers attempted to swim for it, but in the 48 degree Fahrenheit water, he soon lost control and drowned, age 23.

Rohr, Martin (1958-1988), German student in zoology, starting his diploma thesis on European bats, shot and killed, age 29, by muggers on an excursion with the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in Mexico while looking for flower-visiting bats.

Roos, Karl (?-1942), Swiss entomologist working with Gérard Défago on DDT.  Both died, ages unknown, in an unexplained car crash near Heidelberg, Germany. The Swiss chemical company Geigy, which would eventually sell DDT to both sides in the war, had apparently sent them on a clandestine mission to inform the Nazi government of their research.  The Germans hoped to use DDT against the potato beetle, which they apparently feared the Allies would employ as a weapon of biological warfare.  One theory is that the visiting Swiss scientists learned something that day about Germany’s own plans for biological warfare.

Root, Joan (1936-2006), conservationist and activist on Kenya’s Lake Naivasha, murdered at her home there, age 69, by four men armed with AK-47s; the crime remains unsolved.

Rose, Michael (1972-2000) , post-doctoral researcher and ecologist at the University of California at Davis, drowned, age 27, with three others, when their small boat was caught in a storm during an expedition on the Sea of Cortez.

Ross, Ian (1958-2003), wildlife biologist, died  age 44, in a light aircraft accident, with his pilot, Jonathan Edgar Burchell, while radio tracking lions for the Laikipia Predator Project near Nanyuki, Kenya.

Rowley, J. Stuart (1907-1968), ornithologist and vertebrate specimen collector for various museums wrote an account of breeding birds of the Sierra Madre del Sur, Oaxaca, Mexico, and died there, age 61, either in an accidental fall from a cliff or by murder.

Ruschi, Augusto (1915-86), renowned naturalist at Brazil’s National Museum, died from the cumulated effects of malaria, hepatitis, schistosomiasis and, after years of harrowing agony, fatal poisoning, at age 71, from contact with a Dendrobates toad. Throughout his active years, Ruschi fiercely denounced corrupt officials who allowed eco-vandalism in the Amazon.

Ruspoli, Prince  Eugenio (1866-1893), Italian explorer, gave his name to one of world’s most beautiful and rare birds, the Ethiopian endemic Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco, whose first specimen was found in the prince’s hunting bag after he was trampled to death, age 27, in Somalia,  by the infuriated elephant he had just shot.

Sallé, Bettina (19??-2013), a French primate veterinarian who worked passionately on behalf of great ape conservation in central Africa and supported sanctuaries in Gabon, Guinea and Cameroon, she died, age ??, of cerebral malaria, in Gabon.

Samphire, Ben (1978-2009), a British doctoral student, was shot and killed instantly, age 31, while searching for a rare monkey in coastal Ecuador, apparently by a landowner who mistook him for a thief.

San Miguel, Michael (1939-2010), birder and conservationist, died, age 70, when he fell down a cliff, while conducting an owl survey in the San Gabriel Mountains. Remembered here, by another great California ornithologist, Kimball Garrett.

Sánchez Velázquez, Tomás (1954-2007), a rare plant and fern specialist in the Canary Islands (who produced excellent line drawings of his study subjects), died suddenly, age 53, of an unknown illness.

Sankaran, Ravi (1963- 2009) ornithologist, field biologist and director of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology & Natural History, died, age 45, of a heart attack.  His work on the Indian edible-nest Swiftlet provided crucial insights for conservation of this species and he was deeply involved in developing community-based conservation efforts, including sustainable harvesting of these birds’ nests.

Saunders, Hamish (1976-2003), an oceanographer, drowned, age 26, after being swept off the remote island of Branca Rock, in southeastern Australia, by waves that reached him at 45 meters above sea level. He was a member of a team of four studying the Pedra Branca skink.

Sazonov,Yuri Igorevich (1950-2002), Russian ichthyologist, died, age 51 of severe cold contracted when he continued to work at his laboratory at the Zoological Museum of the University of Moscow during roof repairs being performed during the winter.

Schibli, Leo (1958-2004) of SERBO in Oaxaca involved with scores of botanical field trips to survey the flora of Oaxaca and consequently discovered several new species of plants including cycads and orchids, died of a heart attack, age of 46.

Schlagintweit, Adolf (1829–1857), one of five German brothers who became naturalists and explorers, beheaded as a spy, age 28, in Kashgar. Check out this recent account of his death.

Schmidt, Daniel Rein (1959-1987), marine biologist from the University of Kiel in Germany, killed, age 28, with a large group of others in a terrorist attack in Djibouti while waiting to board a three-month expedition of the German research vessel Meteor in the Indian Ocean.

Schmidt, Karl Patterson (1890-1957), herpetologist in Chicago, died, age 67 of a boomslang bite, after making detailed notes on his developing symptoms.   Gregory C. Meyer writes that a death scene in the B-movie classic “The Killer Shrews” was based on the incident.

Schopf, Tom (1940-1984), a specialist in marine fossils and founder of the journal Paleobiology, died of a heart attack, age 44, on a field trip in Texas.

Schnurrenberger, Hans (1925-64), a Swiss naturalist who worked with the Red Cross in humanitarian programs in refugee camps and collected fish, amphibians and reptiles in his spare time. He was examining a juvenile MacClelland’s coral snake in Pokhara, Nepal, when he was bitten and died, age 39, eight hours later. At least one species of snake, Xenochrophis schnurrenbergeri, was named after him.

Schweigger, August Friedrich(1783–1821), German naturalist, age 38, mur­dered by his guide on a research trip in Sicily.

Seegmiller, Richard (Rick) F.  (1951-1983), Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona’s School of Renewable Natural Resources, studying desert bighorn sheep, died, age 32,  in a small plane crash in the Harquahala Mountains when he was radiotracking  collared sheep.

Sellow, Friedrich (1789-1831), who gathered important materials in Brazil, most especially as a botanist and zoologist.  He drowned, age 42, crossing a river in Brazil during the conduct of his work, leaving rich collections at Berlin and Vienna

Seetzen, Ulrich. J.(1767–1811), German explorer and naturalist specializing in snakes and frogs, traveled in the Middle East disguised as a beggar. Accused of stealing cultural treasures, he was poisoned to death, age 44, apparently on the order of an Imam in what is now Yemen.

Serna, Marco Antonio (1936 – 1991),  Colombian naturalist and ornithologist, was looking to collect specimens of the hard-to-catch Little Tinamou in the Magdalena and Cauca valleys of Colombia, when he died, age 55, of a heart attack.  Here’s a Spanish-language narration of the incident.

Shannon, Frederick A. (1921–1965), American physician and herpetologist, died, age 44, from the bite of a Mojave rattlesnake that he was attempting to catch. A brush lizard is named in his honor Urosaurus graciosus shannoni.

Shaw, Frederick John Freshwater  (1885-1936) British botanist and director of the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute, India, died of heat stroke, age 51, on a trip to Agra.

Sherpa, Mingma (1955-2006), a member of the Janajati ethnic group, warden of the national park which contains Mount Everest, closely involved with conservation around Annapurna, killed, age 51, in a helicopter crash that took the lives of 24 people, many of them World Wildlife Fund conservationists, in eastern Nepal.

Shoshani, Jeheskel ‘Hezy’ (19??-2008), an expert in proboscidean (elephant) biology and conservation, killed, age unknown,  by a bomb explosion on a minibus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Sidner, Ronnie (1950-2014), mammalogist, conservationist, and tireless advocate for bats, died, age 64, last August in an automobile accident on her way home after leading a bat field trip for the Southwest Wings Birding Festival.

Silberglied, Robert (1946-1982),  entomologist, field biologist at Harvard and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in residence at Barro Colorado Island, Panama, specialized in matching larvae to adult tropical butterflies by raising them up; died, age 36, in the Air Florida accident in Washington DC.

Silliman, James R. (195?-1983), ornithologist and ecologist, graduate of the University of Arizona,  best known for his ornithological work in Nicaragua, killed, age unknown, in a car accident in Leon, Nicaragua.

Simenson, Brant Marcus (1965-2002), an American birdwatcher living in Pakistan, died, age 37, by falling into a ravine near the village of Qardigali in the Himalayas north of Islamabad while searching for the Western Tragopan, a species of pheasant.

Simons, Perry Oveitt (1869‒1901), an American who collected reptiles and amphibians in Peru (c.1900), and birds in Bolivia (1901), was murdered, age 32, by his guide when crossing the Andes. Seven birds, four reptiles, two amphibians, and a mammal are named after him.

Simpson, James Jenkins  (1881-1936) was a British zoologist who served tours with the British East India company in Burma, with the Nyassa Company in East Africa, and with an Entomological Research Committee in West Africa, before moving to Turkey to serve in Department of Oceanography and Marine Biological Research. He was traveling from Greece on the ship Kyrenia when he was found missing from his cabin and presumed drowned, age 55.

Skiles, Wes (1958-2010) pioneering underwater cinematographer, still photographer and conservationist, worked with National Geographic and scientific research teams to explore caves and their hidden marine life, drowned, age 52, on assignment off the coast of Florida.

Skinner, George Ure (1804-1867), a British exporter in Guatemala, who turned plant collector with enormous enthusiasm, specializing in orchids.  He died of dysentery, age 63, in Panama. Uroskinnera and Cattleya skinneri are two plants, of many, which have been dedicated to him.

Slowinski, Joseph (1962–2001), herpetologist, age 38, in northern Burma, snakebite.

Smith, Christen (1785-1816), a Norwegian botanist, died, age 30, probably of yellow fever, while serving aboard HMS Congo on its exploration of the Congo River. His collections on that voyage included 250 unknown plant species.

Smith, David N. (1945-1991) botanist for the Missouri Botanical Gardens, was working on a tree inventory of the Serranía Pilón Lajas in the eastern Andes of Bolivia when he died, age 45, in La Paz, from an embolism caused by phlebitis following a field expedition.

Smith, Herbert H. (1851-1919) was an American naturalist and writer who, together with his wife Daisy, collected widely in South America and the Caribbean.   He was deaf and while collecting snails along the railway in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in March 1919, he was struck and killed, age 68, by a train.  The spot on the University of Alabama was later known as Smith’s Crossing.

L.S. Smith

Smith, Lindsay S. (1917-1970), Australian botanist, best known for his work on rainforest trees, particularly in New Guinea during World War II, collapsed and died, age 52,on the slopes of Mount Barney in Queensland, while preparing  a list of its plant life.

Smithwick, Richard P. (1887–1909), American ornithologist, smothered to death while digging his way into a soft bank to raid a Belted Kingfisher nest, found “with his feet only projecting through the sand,” age 22, in Virginia.

Snelling, Roy R. (1934-2008), hymenopterist, died, age 74, in Kenya on an ant collecting trip.

Snetsinger, Phoebe (1931-1999), birder famous for having seen 8400 species, most after she was diagnosed with melanoma in 1981.  She was an heiress of the Leo Burnett advertising fortune and used her wealth traveling and making field notes that have proved important in mapping species and subspecies distributions.  She died in a car accident in Madagascar, age 68, leaving four children who are now bird researchers.

Soto Arenas, Miguel Ángel (1963-2009), murdered by an unknown assailant at his home in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, specialized in ecology and taxonomy of orchids.

Spix, Johann Baptist Ritter von (1781–1826), a Bavarian biologist and explorer of the Amazon basin, he described more than 500 animal taxa. From his 1817-1820, expedition through Brazil, he brought a large number of specimens that have become a basis of the National Zoological Collection in Munich, along with a rich ethnographic collection that is now part of the Museum of Ethnography in Munich. He died, aged 45, from an unknown disease thought to have been acquired in his travels.

Stalker, Wilfred (1879–1910), British collector of natural history specimens in Southeast Asia, drowned, age 31, on the British Ornithological Union’s 1909 expedition to New Guinea.

Bill Stanley

Stanley, Bill (1957-2015), head of the mammal collection at the Field Museum in Chicago, died of a heart attack, age 58, while running traplines for rare species in Ethiopia.  He had once remarked that he would never retire: “I’m going to do this until the day I die,” and a colleague noted that he died doing what he loved best.

Steller, Georg Wilhelm (1709-1746), pioneering botanist and zoologist in Russia and Alaska,  namesake to the Steller’s Jay, and many other species in the Northern Pacific region, died, age 37, from scurvy or fever in Siberia.

Stockbridge, Dewey (1983-2020), a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, died, age 36, in a helicopter crash, while doing survey work for the desert bighorn sheep herd in the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

Stokes, William(?–1873), “sailor boy” on HMS Challenger, killed, age unknown, when block from oceanographers’ dredge tore loose and hit him.

Stoliczka, Ferdinand (1838–1874), Czech paleontologist and naturalist, age 36, of altitude sickness while crossing the Himalayas in Ladakh, in India.

Paradise parrot, collected by Strange

Strange, Frederick (1826 – 1854), born in Norfolk, England, became a natural history collector in Australia, for the ornithologist John Gould, among others. He participated in an 1839 exploration north of the Murray River, “during which the entire party nearly perished, being compelled to bleed their horses to quench their thirst, on account of the entire want of water.” On his final expedition in 1854, his party landed on South Percy Island, where resident aborigines attacked and speared Strange, age 28, and three others. After a trial in Brisbane, a half-dozen of the aborigines met their deaths by hanging. Several plant group now bear Strange’s name.

Sugliano, Gabriel Omar Skuk (1962-2011), herpetologist, drowned, age 49, at Maceió, Brazil.

Suhm, Rudolf von Willemoes(1847–1875), German, the youngest of the “Scientifics,” dubbed “the baron” by crew of HMS Challenger, age 28, of erysipelas, an acute streptococcus infection.

Swain, Ralph B. (1912–1953), entomologist, ornithologist, botanist, age 41, murdered by bandits in Mexico.

Swammerdam, Johann (1637–1680), Dutch naturalist, studied medicine and anatomy in Leiden, known for his work on the anatomy of insects, first to describe the phases of insect life, first to describe red blood cells, but later renounced science for religion, died, age 43, of malaria.

Swynnerton, Charles Francis Massey (1877-1938), was an English-born naturalist noted for his contributions to tsetse fly research, who died, age, 60, in Mjari, Tanzania, when his Dehavilland Leopard Moth airplane crashed as he was on route to England to receive an award for his work.

Suraud, Jean-Patrick (1977-2012), who worked on conservation of West African giraffes and other species, died in an ultralight crash in South Africa, age 35.

Taggart, James (1962?-2013), a Scottish botanist, died, age 41, after falling and hitting his head while on a solo plant-hunting expedition in the Hoàng Liên Son Mountains of northwestern Vietnam.

Tärnström, Christopher (1711-1746), the first of Linnaeus’s “apostles,” students he sent out to explore the biological world, died, age 35, of fever, off the coast of Vietnam, while en route to China.

Tegner, Mia (1947-2001), ecologist of the kelp forests for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, died, age 53, while scuba diving off California

Thaler, Konrad (1940- 2005),  Austrian arachnologist who described 77 species of Alpine and Mediterranean spiders, died, age 64, of a sudden heart attack while on a student field trip in the Alps.

Thanikaimoni, Ganapathi (1938–1986), a leading palynologist, who studied contemporary and fossil pollens, was killed, age 48, during the military assault after terrorists hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 from Karachi.  He was reportedly helping a child when hit by fragments from a grenade set off by the terrorists.

Thorbjarnarson

Thorbjarnarson, John (1957–2010), American herpetologist specializing in crocodiles, age 52, of malaria, in India.  In 2012, a biologist named a new fossil species of crocodile, the largest known, in his honor Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni.  “He was a giant in the field, so it only made sense to name a giant after him,” said University of Iowa geoscientist Christopher Brochu.

Tillyard, Robin John (1881–1937),   British entomologist and paleontologist, also a spiritualist who was said to have searched for the archetype dipteran via séances, died, age 56, from a broken neck suffered in an automobile accident in Australia.

Thirgood,  Simon (1962-2009), vertebrate ecologist and conservation biologist, killed, age 46, by the collapse of a building during a storm in Ethiopia.

Thozet, Anthelme (1826–1878), a French-Australian botanist and ethnographer, collected plant specimens from Queensland for natural history collections in Melbourne and Paris. He died, age 52, after contracting “bilious fever,” possibly meaning malaria, on an expedition to Bluff, Queensland, near what is now the Dawson Range State Forest.  

Tomorsukh, Lkagvasumberel (“Sumbe”) (1988-2015), was a junior wildlife researcher with the Snow Leopard Trust in Mongolia, working directly with leopards for radiocollaring, camera trapping , surveying, and outreach. He died November 2015 in a probable murder, age 27. Sumbe was known for speaking up in support of conservation in an area where powerful political and economic interests considered his work incompatible with mining and grazing. He was found dead in a lake soon after a confrontation. His death was ruled an accident or suicide by local authorities, but this decision was widely ridiculed by supporters.  The investigation is continuing in the Khovsgol area, Mongolia.

Tonnoir, Andre Leon (1885-1940),  was a Belgian entomologist, specializing in Diptera, the flies.  He worked for Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and died while collecting alone in the mountains behind Canberra, apparently of a heart attack, age 54.

Török, Péter Zsolt (1989-2016), a Hungarian herpetologist, was known for  traveling alone on difficult hikes. He disappeared, age 27, while collecting lizards on the coast of the Caspian Sea in Dagestan, Russia. Investigators who recovered the body six months later said the circumstances indicated that he had fallen off a cliff.

Townsend

Townsend, John Kirk (1809 –1851), American physician and naturalist, age 42, of arsenic poisoning.

Tripathy, Ambika (19??-2004), was a conservation biologist studying sea turtles on Great Nicobar Island in eastern India. He was killed, age 30 to 35, when the tsunami of December 2004 struck.  (See: “A story of field assistants and sea turtle research in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.” Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter 16:19-21.)

Trujillo, Gabriel R. (1993-2023), a doctoral candidate in botany at the University of California at Berkeley, was murdered, age 30, in Sonora, Mexico, while traveling to collect plant specimens for his thesis. He was “an amazing and inspiring person,” according to evolutionary biologist Corrie Moreau, who was a mentor when Trujillo was an undergraduate at Cornell.

Tudor, ??? (17??-1816), a comparative anatomist, died, probably of yellow fever, while serving aboard HMS Congo on its exploration of the Zaire River.

Tungkyitbo(?–1891), Lepcha collector working with William Doherty, hos­pitalized in Java for unknown condition, then died at sea.

Tyner, Mike (1976-2011), a field supervisor for the California Condor recovery program, encountered a sudden wind storm while monitoring a young condor recently released into the wild near Big Sur, California. As the crew was making their way to safety, Mike was struck and killed, age 35, by a falling tree limb.

Vallée

Vallée, Anne M.J. (1958 -1982), one of the first biologists to observe the impact of climate change on animal populations, died, age 24, in a cliff-climbing accident in the Triangle Island reserve, on the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island. See The Last Island by Alison Watt for an account of research there with Vallée.

Vavilov, Nikolai (1887 – 1943),  the first modern scientist to make the connection between genetic variation and plant breeding for the purpose of improving crop plants, and feeding the hungry.  His many seed collecting expeditions throughout much of the world in the early 1900s are reminicent of the adventures of Indiana Jones.  He ran afoul of Joseph Stalin, and was arrested and later starved to death, age 55, in the Gulag.  Additional reading:  Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov’s Quest to End Hunger, by Gary Paul Nabhan (Island Press), and The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin’s Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century, by Peter Pringle.

Veasna, Sam (1966?-1999) Cambodian ornithologist died of malaria, age 33,  during field work in the Cardomom Mountains.

Vijaya, J. “Viji” (1959-1987), India’s first female herpetologist and turtle field biologist,  found dead in the forest, age 28, of unknown cause. An affectionate profile of her was published here. The turtle Vijayachelys silvatica is named in her honor.

Vishniac, Wolf V.  (1922-1973), a microbiologist at the University of Rochester in New York, devised a miniature laboratory intended to be delivered to Mars aboard one of the Viking landers to detect signs of life there.  It included a microbiological sensor, dubbed the “Wolf Trap” after its maker.  Budget cuts to the project kept the Wolf Trap on Earth, and Vishniac himself died, age 51, on Antarctica while attempting to retrieve an experiment. The crater Vishniac on Mars was named after him.  (His father was the celebrated photographer Roman Vishniac.)

Vivant, Françoise (1926-1955), a French botanist, died, age 29, from falling 150 meters while trying to collect Saxifraga longifolia from a cliff in the French Pyrenees. Her husband, naturalist Jean Vivant, managed to collect the specimens in question at his first pilgrimage back to the place of the accident four months later, using an easier route that had not been apparent before.

Vogel, Julius R. (1812-1841), a German botanist, took leave from his post at the University of Bonn to join the ill-fated British Niger Expedition of 1841, conceived to oppose slavery, promote Christianity, and advance European colonization.  Vogel collected in Sierra Leone and Liberia, but he fell ill, of fever (malaria) and dysentery, and died, age 31, on the island of Bioko, off the coast of Cameroon.

Volz, Walter (1875-1907), Swiss botanist, zoologist, and ethnologist, killed, age 32, when the French attacked and destroyed the village of Bussamai (present-day Boussedou) in what is now Guinea,where he had been stranded after being abandoned by his native carriers.

Wahlberg, Johan August (1810‒1856),  Swedish naturalist, collected widely in southern Africa (1838‒1856), sending thousands of specimens home to Sweden. He was exploring the headwaters of the Limpopo River when a wounded elephant killed him. An amphibian, mammal, four birds and four reptiles are named after him.

Wallace, Herbert(1828–1850), entomologist, age 22, of yellow fever in the Amazon.

Walker, Terriss (1950-1992) prominent Queensland seabird scientist who disappeared at sea, age 42, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, while surveying remote seabird islands.

Walsh, Benjamin(1808–1869), the first state entomologist in Illinois, age 61, after losing his foot in a train accident. Here’s a biographic article published in 2003.

Wang, Lue Jiang (1963-2000), a promising young paleoceanographer, raised in China, did his post-doctoral research in Germany and had become a professor at Japan’s Hokkaido University. He was studying the geological history of monsoons in China using fossil planktonic foraminifera and other tools, when he died, age 37, in a diving accident.

Ymke Warren

Warren, Ymke (1970-2010), British primatologist researching the critically endangered Cross River gorilla for the Wildlife Conservation Society, murdered at age 40 in Cameroon.

Warncke, Klaus (1937-1993), a prolific German hymenopterist, who named over 885 new species of Palearctic bees, and died, age 56, along with his wife, Christa, when their car was struck head-on by an oncoming truck while on a field expedition in Egypt.

Weber, Dale (19??-1997), an American ichthyologist, killed in a car accident in Brazil, age unknown, who made numerous trips to Panama, Venezuela, and Brazil to study and collect killifish species. He died, a friend reports, “when his car swerved off a mountain road in Brazil to avoid an oncoming bus. His son, 19, was with him in the car and escaped unharmed but Dale was trapped upside down and drowned in a river full of killifish in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon.”

Webster III, T. Preston (1947-1975), herpetologist,  best known as a pioneer of gel electrophoresis techniques for elucidating species relationships, and among the first to describe “cryptic species” using molecular data. Webster conducted extensive fieldwork on the Anolis lizards of the Caribbean, as well as salamanders in the southeastern USA. He was killed, age 28, in a car crash in Montana and has since been immortalized with the names of Anolis websteri and a salamander Plethodon websteri.

Weidig, Walter (19??-1983), was a German biology student seeking his master’s degree at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen. He worked as a volunteer in Kenya on research projects about cooperative breeding in birds run by the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology. Heading back to Germany through Nairobi, he was shot dead, age ??, in the aftermath of an attempted military coup against Kenya’s then-President Daniel Arap Moi.

Weller, Worth Hamilton (1913-1931),  fell off a cliff on Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, age 18, while collecting specimens of a newly discovered salamander (Weller’s Salamander, Plethodon welleri).

White, Brandon (1967-2020), a wildlife technician with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, died, age 52, in a helicopter crash, while doing survey work for the desert bighorn sheep herd in the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

White, Samuel(1835–1880), Australian ornithologist, age 45, of pneumonia or fever during an expedition to the Aru Islands.

Whitehead, John(1860–1899), British collector of natural history specimens in Southeast Asia, age 39, of fever in Hainan, China.

Wiley, Grace (1884-1948), started out as an entomologist at the University of Kansas, and named a water strider Rheumatobates hungerfordi, and a water boatman, Cenocorixa wileyae. But she eventually became a herpetologist working to overcome public fear of snakes.  She was the first person to breed rattlesnakes in captivity, and also routinely handled copperheads, cobras, and mambas without protective equipment. Her casual methods with venomous snakes lost her jobs at the Minneapolis Library and at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo.  Then, in 1948, a photographer’s flash startled a king cobra Wiley was handling, and it bit her. Her only bottle of cobra antivenom was accidentally broken and within two hours, Wiley was dead, age 64.

Williams, Susan (1952?-2018), American marine biologist who studied sea grasses and corals, died, age 66, in a car crash en route to teach a class on “Life in the Sea” to undergraduates at the University of California at Davis.

Wood, Geoffrey Howorth Spencer (1927-1957), forest botanist in Sandakan (N. Borneo or Sabah). died, age 30, of burns suffered while preparing his collections and pouring alcohol over them too near the campfire. One of his helpers carried him to the hospital, but too late.

York

Wysiekierski, Chris (1971-2001), graduate student at the University of Windsor (Canada) working on protection of coastal ecosystems, who drowned in a snorkeling accident, age 30, while conducting field research on coral reefs near Turneffe Atoll, Belize.

Yamazaki, Tetsuhide (1967-2023), a Japanese scientist studying the thinning of sea ice, was working near Siorapaluk, Greenland, the world’s northernmost village, when he fell through the ice and drowned, age 56. Locals had warned him that it was too early in the season to go out, and that fast ocean currents made the area especially dangerous.

York, Eric (1970-2007) biologist killed, age 37, by pneumonic plague after autopsying a mountain lion in the Grand Canyon.

Young, Paulo Secchin (1960-2004), a world authority on barnacles and an inveterate collector of crustaceans of all types, was killed, age 44, in an automobile accident in northeastern Brazil, while on a field trip.

Yudakov, Anatoly (1938-1974), Russian zoologist who mostly studied Siberian tigers, died, age 36, after being crushed by a falling tree in Ussuriland

Zann, Richard (1944-2009), who studied the zebra finch in field and aviary, as well as lyrebird mimicry and the fauna of Krakatau, died, age 64, with his wife and daughter in the Black Saturday bushfires of February 2007.

Read my article about Dying for Discovery here.

To learn more about how their discoveries have changed our lives, read my book The Species Seekers.  (“A swashbuckling romp…brilliantly evokes that just-before Darwin era.” BBC Focus; “An enduring story bursting at the seams with intriguing, fantastical and disturbing anecdotes.” New Scientist; “This beautifully written book has the verve of an adventure story.” Wall Street Journal )

This article is copyright © by Richard Conniff, 2019

Richard Conniff is now at work on a book about the fight against epidemic disease. Please consider becoming a supporter of this work. Click here to learn how