Alexander von Bunge (russian: Александр Александрович Бунге 9 November 1851, in

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

– 19 January 1930, in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

) was a Baltic German physician,

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 ...

and Arctic explorer in the employ of Russia. He was the son of botanist

Alexander Georg von Bunge Alexander Georg von Bunge (russian: Алекса́ндр Андре́евич Бу́нге; – ) was a Russian botanist. He is best remembered for scientific expeditions into Asia and especially Siberia. Early life and education Bunge was b ...

(1803–1890).

Biography

From 1870 to 1878, he was a student at the

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 ...

, where in 1874–75, he also worked as an assistant in the institute of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

. In 1880 he earned his medical doctorate, relocating to

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 ...

during the following year.Google Books
Encyclopedia of the Arctic by Mark Nuttall Here, he enlisted with the Russian Geographical Society on a meteorological expedition to the Lena River delta (1882–1884). In 1885–86, with

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

Eduard von Toll (1858–1902), he participated on a scientific journey to the

Verkhoyansk Verkhoyansk ( rus, Верхоянск, p=vʲɪrxɐˈjansk; sah, Верхоянскай, ''Verkhoyanskay'') is a town in Verkhoyansky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the Yana River in the Arctic Circle, from Batagay, the ad ...

region and the

New Siberian Islands The New Siberian Islands ( rus, Новосиби́рские Oстрова, r=Novosibirskiye Ostrova; sah, Саҥа Сибиир Aрыылара, translit=Saña Sibiir Arıılara) are an archipelago in the Extreme North of Russia, to the north o ...

. On the expedition, they found the remains of

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

s''Bulletin de lAcadémie Impériale des Sciences de S^T-Pétersburg (1886)''
''Bericht über fernere Fahrten im Lena-Delta und die Ausgrabung eines angeblich vollständigen Mammuthcadavers. Von Dr. Al. Bunge. Aus Briefen an den Akademiker L v. Schrenck''; see also https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bulletin_de_l%27Acadmie_impriale_des_sciences_de_St.-Ptersbourg_(20431141325).jpg and the fossils of other large mammals, and in the process, demonstrated that the New Siberian Islands had a relatively warm climate during the Late Pleistocene. Eduard von Toll gave the name "

Bunge Land Bunge Land or Zemlya Bunge is a huge empty and almost barren intermediate zone in the Anzhu Islands north of Siberia. It is located between Kotelny and Faddeyevsky, which, unlike Bunge Land, could be described as proper islands. Sandy and flat, i ...

" for the low sandy shoal region joining

Kotelny Island Kotelny Island ( rus, Остров Котельный, r=Ostrov Kotelny; sah, Олгуйдаах Aрыы, translit=Olguydaax Arııta) is part of the Anzhu Islands subgroup of the New Siberian Islands located between the Laptev Sea and the East ...

Faddeyevsky Peninsula Faddeyevsky, also known as Faddeyevsky Island (russian: остров Фаддеевский), is a large peninsula in the New Siberian Islands, Sakha Republic, Russia. This geographic feature was named after a fur trader called Faddeyev who buil ...

(formerly believed to be separate islands). Beginning in 1886, he worked as a physician on various Russian frigates, later participating in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

as head physician of the Russian Pacific Ocean squadron and marine hospitals in Port Arthur. In 1905 he embarked on an expedition to the mouth of the

Yenisey River The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук, ...

by way of the Northeast Passage. From 1906 to 1914, he was head physician in the Russian

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

navy. and during

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 ...

was director of several military hospitals in St. Petersburg. In 1918 he relocated to

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, taking up residence at Mõtliku, a farmstead he inherited from his father. In 1924 moved to Tallinn, where he died six years later on January 19, 1930.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunge, Alexander von 1851 births 1930 deaths People from Tartu People from Kreis Dorpat Baltic-German people Military doctors of the Russian Empire Explorers from the Russian Empire University of Tartu alumni