Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger (17 September 1803 near Grottkau,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is spl ...

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. ...

– 30 December 1863 in Berlin) was a German

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

and

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 ...

. Gloger was the first person to recognise the structural differences between

swallows The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

and

swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...

s, and also the first to put up artificial

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

boxes. He was the originator of what is now known as

Gloger's rule Gloger's rule is an ecogeographical rule which states that within a species of endotherms, more heavily pigmented forms tend to be found in more humid environments, e.g. near the equator. It was named after the zoologist Constantin Wilhelm Lamb ...

, which states that dark pigments increase in races of animals (birds were the examples in which he originally noticed the pattern) living in warm and humid habitats. He put forward this theory in his ''Das Abändern der Vögel durch Einfluss des Klimas'' (1833). The exact way this pattern is actually caused is still unclear, but in birds it has been suggested that darker pigmented plumage provides protection against feather-degrading bacteria whose activity is greater in warm and humid regions. His other works include ''Gemeinnütziges Hand-und Hilfsbuch der Naturgeschichte'' (1841).

References

External links

''Das Abändern der Vögel durch Einfluss des Klimas'' (1833)

Interspecific variation in primate coat colour supports Gloger’s rule
Kamilar and Bradley, J Biogeography, 2011 19th-century German zoologists German ornithologists 1803 births 1863 deaths {{Ornithologist-stub