Kurt Camillo Loos (25 January 1859 – 27 July 1933) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

forester and ornithologist active in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

. Loos was a founder of bird-ringing in Bohemia and was involved in founding a ringing station and a scientific organization in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

called ''Lotos'' which also produced a periodical of the same name.

Biography

Loos was born in Brunndöbra,

Klingenthal Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtland region, in Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlov ...

, the son of Karl Friedrich Moritz Loos who was a teacher at the church school. When the family moved to Arnoldsgrün and he went to the secondary school at

Plauen Plauen (; Czech language, Czech: ''Plavno'') is, with around 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth-largest city of Saxony, Germany after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the larges ...

where he was a contemporary of Franz Helm with whom he spent time outdoors. His brother P. A. Loos later became German Vice consul in Argentina. He then studied natural sciences at the

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

and worked as a forest officer in the Karlsfeld district. He trained at the Tharandt Forest Academy after which he worked at Königstein and then Schlenau, Bohemia, from 1881 to 1898. The

Liběchov Liběchov (; german: Liboch) is a town in Mělník District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,100 inhabitants. Administrative parts The village of Ješovice is an administrative part of Liběchov. Etymology The ...

district was then put under his charge and he established a ringing station on the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

river and founded the Lotos Natural Science Society in Prague who published a periodical called ''Lotos'' which ran from 1914 to 1931. He also observed individual pairs of birds over a long duration and produced a monograph on the life of the black woodpecker in 1910 and on the eagle owl in Bohemia (1906). He retired in 1926 and lived in Liběchov. He died in Mendoza, Argentina where he was visiting his brother who was the German Vice consul. He was buried in Liběchov.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loos, Kurt 1859 births 1933 deaths People from Klingenthal German ornithologists