Ragnar Kreuger (4 August 1897 – 27 October 1997) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

industrialist and amateur

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 ...

. From 1926 Kreuger acquired an engineering company, a construction firm, and electrical, now YIT. He started birds egg-collecting as a little boy in the 1910s. In 1917 he bought his first Finnish private collection. He went on to collect birds eggs for more than 50 years. He acquired collections from across the globe. In 1962, he donated his collection of the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

, where it is maintained in the

Finnish Museum of Natural History The Finnish Museum of Natural History ( fi, Luonnontieteellinen keskusmuseo, sv, Naturhistoriska centralmuseet), established in 1988, is a research institution under the University of Helsinki in Finland, based in Helsinki, Finland. It is a natur ...

as Museum Oologicum R. Kreuger, but he continued to collect as a hobby, and to expand the collection even after the exchange and purchase of eggs was made illegal. Kreuger was an avid

hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

. He bought the island of Hättö in

Ingå Ingå (; fi, Inkoo) is a municipality of Finland. Ingå is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Uusimaa region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density ...

and introduced there a number of exotic plant and animal species. For instance, in 1939 he purchased

Mouflon The mouflon (''Ovis gmelini'') is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, the Caspian Sea, Caspian region from eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. It is thought to be the ancestor of all modern domestic sheep breeds. Taxonomy ''Ovis gmelini'' ...

from Denmark. The animals were quarantined at the zoo then transferred to Hättö. The herd gradually began to increase and was in the late 1940s about 30 individuals.

External links

YIT
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kreuger, Ragnar Finnish ornithologists 20th-century Finnish businesspeople Finnish centenarians Men centenarians 1997 deaths 1897 births 20th-century zoologists