Count Otto Eduard von Zedlitz und Trützschler (23 March 1873 – 4 December 1927) was a German nobleman, naturalist, explorer and writer. He settled in to Tofhult, Sweden after World War I.
Von Zedlitz was born in
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 split ...
at the family home in Schwentnig near
Zobten. His parents were Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Constantin von Zedlitz-Trützschler (1833–1888) and Helene von Rohr (1839–1878). After the early death of his mother he was raised by an aunt in
Altenburg. He was educated at
Breslau. He joined for military service (Leibkürassieren Regiment) following which he travelled around
Spitzbergen and the Arctic circle with Arthur Berger and J. Roth around 1900. He travelled to Tunisia with Paul W. H. Spatz (1865–1942) from 1904 to 1906, making large collections of birds. He made several more visits to Africa and again to the Arctic. In 1912 he met
Lord Rothschild
Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertfordshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for Sir Nathan Rothschild, 2nd Baronet, a member of the Rothschild banking family. He was the first Jewish mem ...
and
Ernst Hartert in Algeria. For some time towards the end of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he was posted to the Eastern Front where he explored the
Pripyat Marshes
__NOTOC__
The Pinsk Marshes ( be, Пінскія балоты, ''Pinskiya baloty''), also known as the Pripet Marshes ( be, Прыпяцкія балоты, ''Prypiackija baloty''), the Polesie Marshes, and the Rokitno Marshes, are a vast natural ...
. After the war, he moved to Sweden and settled in Tofhult in Kalv. His collections of more than 7000 skins was donated to the
Stockholm Museum for which he received a Linnaeus Medal from the Swedish Academy of Science.
Von Zedlitz described several bird taxa including ''
Camaroptera harterti''.
Oscar Neumann
Oscar Rudolph Neumann (3 September 1867 in Berlin – 17 May 1946 in Chicago) was a German ornithologist and naturalist who explored and collected specimens in Africa. He fled via Cuba and settled in the United States to escape Nazi persecutio ...
named ''Bucanetes githagineus zedlitzi'' from one of his specimens after him in 1907.
Anton Reichenow named ''Cisticola brachypterus zedlitzi'' after him. A couple of other taxa named after him are considered junior synonyms.
Publications
Von Zedlitz wrote mainly in German and particularly in the ''Journal für Ornithologie''. An incomplete list of publications includes:
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zedlitz, Otto Eduard Von
1873 births
1927 deaths
German ornithologists
Zedlitz family