Nikolai Alekseyvich Zarudny (russian: Николай Алексеевич Зарудный;
[ rus, Николай Алексеевич Зарудный, r=Nikolay Alekseevich Zarudny. His name has been transliterated a number of other ways; especially with ''Sarudny'' or ''Sarudney'' in older works.] 13 September 1859 – 17 March 1919
) was a
Ukrainian-
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
explorer and zoologist who studied the flora and fauna of
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
.
He was born in Gryakovo,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
(then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
). He wrote his first
ornithology
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 ...
book in 1896 and made five expeditions in the Caspian region between 1884 and 1892.
He led other expeditions to
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
supported by the
Russian Geographical Society and the
. He collected nearly 3,140 specimens of birds and 50,000 insects. After the
Russian Revolution, his collection was
nationalized
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...
by the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
s and moved to the museum at the
University of Tashkent. For his work, the
Russian Geographical Society awarded him the Przhevalsky Medal.
His last work on the ornithology of
Turkestan
Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang.
Overview
Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turk ...
region was not completed as he died of accidental poisoning. He published 218 monographs in the course of his life and named many
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 ...
.
Taxon named in his honor
Among the species and other
taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
named after Zarudny are
*''
Eumeces scneiderii zarudnyi'',
[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Zarudnyi", p. 293).]
*
Zarudny's jird,
*
Zarudny's rock shrew,
*
Zarudny's worm lizard,
[
*The Freshwater fish '' Schizothorax zarudnyi'' (Nikolskii 1897)]
Footnotes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
National University of Uzbekistan
1859 births
1919 deaths
Russian ornithologists
Ukrainian ornithologists
Ukrainian emigrants to Russia
Biologists from the Russian Empire
Accidental deaths in Russia
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