Peter Leopold von Schrenck (russian: Леопольд Иванович фон Шренк; 1826 – 8 January 1894) was a Russian

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 d ...

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

and

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

Biography

Schrenck came from a

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

family, and was born and brought up near Chotenj, south-west of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. He received his doctorate from the

Imperial University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, and then studied natural science in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

. He joined the crew of the ''Aurora'' in the circumnavigation of the world. In 1853 Schrenck was sent by the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences to explore the Amurland on board the schooner ''Vostok''. He reached the mouth of the

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...

in September 1854 with the botanist

Carl Maximowicz Carl Johann Maximovich (also Karl Ivanovich Maximovich, Russian: Карл Иванович Максимович; 23 November 1827 in Tula, Russia – 16 February 1891 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian botanist. Maximovich spent most of his life ...

. In February 1855 he visited

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...

and then explored the Amur in the spring and summer. In 1856 he returned overland to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, via Lake Baykal. He published his findings in his ''Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande'' (1860). He was awarded the Konstantin medal by the Russian Geographical Society. In later years Schrenck turned his attention to the study of the native peoples of Russia. On 10 November, 1879 he was appointed director of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St Petersburg. A number of animals are named after Schrenck, including the following

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. * Schrenck's limpet, '' Notoacmea schrenckii'' *

Amur sturgeon The Japanese sturgeon, or Amur sturgeon (''Acipenser schrenckii'') is a species of fish in the family Acipenseridae found in the Amur River basin in China and Russia. Claims of its presence in the Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the ma ...

, ''Acipenser shrenckii'' * Manchurian black water snake, ''Elaphe schrenckii'' Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Schrenck", p. 238). * Schrenck's bittern, ''Ixobrychus eurhythmus'' * A butterfly, '' Apatura schrenckii''.

References

Sources

*Mearns and Mearns - ''Biographies for Birdwatchers''
Kunstkamera
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schrenck, Leopold von 1826 births 1894 deaths People from Sumy Oblast People from Sumskoy Uyezd Baltic-German people 19th-century German zoologists Explorers from the Russian Empire Geographers from the Russian Empire German geographers Russian anthropologists German anthropologists University of Tartu alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Königsberg alumni Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences

Biography

See also

References

Sources