August Spennemann (c. 1878 – 1945) was a German

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

who lived in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

for 25 years (1915–1940). During his Indonesian years he resided mostly at Pegadenbaru, Subang regency, and Bandung, in the province of West Java. After 1930 he reportedly lived at Parakansalam near Purwakarta, also in West Java, until he was interned by the Dutch in May 1940. He died in an allied prison camp in then British India. While he was living in West Java he compiled an account of his observations in the late 1920s of the

Javan lapwing The Javan lapwing (''Vanellus macropterus'') also known as Javanese lapwing and Javanese wattled lapwing is (or was) a wader in the lapwing family. This large, long-legged wader inhabited the marshes and river deltas of Java (island), Java, and ...

, near Pamanukan in

West Java province West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

. The typescript of his notes was lost until 2000 when it turned up at the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam. His notebook was located as well, indicating that he lastly observed the lapwings in 1931. Spennemann's notes include descriptions of the hitherto unrecorded behaviour and calls of the poorly known bird, which was last seen in 1940 and is now probably extinct.Van Balen, S (BAS); & Nijman, Vincent. (2007). New information on the Critically Endangered Javanese Lapwing ''Vanellus macropterus'', based mainly on unpublished notes by August Spennemann (c. 1878–1945). ''Bird Conservation International'' 17: 225-233.

References

1870s births 1945 deaths German ornithologists German expatriates in the Dutch East Indies {{ornithologist-stub