Gustav Ferdinand Richard Radde (27 November 1831 – 2 March 1903) was a German naturalist and Siberian

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Radde's warbler Radde's warbler (''Phylloscopus schwarzi'') is a leaf warbler which breeds in Siberia. This warbler is strongly migratory and winters in Southeast Asia. The genus name ''Phylloscopus'' is from Ancient Greek ''phullon'', "leaf", and ''skopos'', ...

and several other species are named after him.

Biography

Radde was born in Danzig, the son of a

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after ...

. He had little formal education, and began a career as an

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Americ ...

. At an early age he was influenced by Anton Menge and became increasingly interested in natural history, and in 1852 he gave up his career and spent two years in the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a po ...

with the botanist Christian von Steven, collecting both plants and animals. He made further trips to southern Russia with

Johann Friedrich von Brandt Johann Friedrich von Brandt (25 May 1802 – 15 July 1879) was a German-Russian naturalist, who worked mostly in Russia. Brandt was born in Jüterbog and educated at a gymnasium in Wittenberg and the University of Berlin. In 1831 he emigrat ...

and

Karl Ernst von Baer Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer Edler von Huthorn ( – ) was a Baltic German scientist and explorer. Baer was a naturalist, biologist, geologist, meteorologist, geographer, and is considered a, or the, founding father of embryology. He was a ...

. He was botanist and zoologist on the East Siberian Expedition of 1855, led by the astronomer Ludwig Schwarz. In 1864 he eventually settled in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

. In the same year he explored the region surrounding

Mount Elbrus Mount Elbrus ( rus, links=no, Эльбрус, r=Elbrus, p=ɪlʲˈbrus; kbd, Ӏуащхьэмахуэ, 'uaşhəmaxuə; krc, Минги тау, Mingi Taw) is the highest and most prominent peak in Russia and Europe. It is situated in the we ...

, the highest mountain in the

Western Palearctic The Western Palaearctic or Western Palearctic is part of the Palaearctic realm, one of the eight biogeographic realms dividing the Earth's surface. Because of its size, the Palaearctic is often divided for convenience into two, with Europe, North ...

. As well as collecting many plants he recorded the languages, ballads and customs of the local tribes. He set up a museum (the Caucasus Museum) and library in Tbilisi to exhibit his discoveries. His collecting expeditions included visits along the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Ro ...

coast and eastwards beyond the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central As ...

to Askhabad. In 1895 he sailed to

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

with the Grand Duke Michael, and two years later he was official naturalist on a visit by members of the Russian imperial family to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

. He eventually became a member of the Council of State in Tbilisi. In 1884 he was honoured with the chairmanship of the first

International Ornithological Congress International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He was also an honorary member of the ''Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft'', and a foreign member of the British Ornithologists' Union and the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

. He was awarded the

Patron's Medal The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...

of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

in 1889 and the

Constantine Medal The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection w ...

of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in 1898.

Eponyms

Animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage ...

s named after him include

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s such as

Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). ''Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate''. New Haven: Yale University Press. 400 pp. . ("Radde", p. 280). and

Radde's accentor Radde's accentor (''Prunella ocularis'') is a species of bird in the family Prunellidae. It is found in mountainous parts of Yemen and northern Southwest Asia. Its natural habitat is temperate grassland. Taxonomy Radde's accentor was described ...

, and

amphibian Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbor ...

s and

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchoce ...

s such as the Mongolian toad (''Pseudepidalea raddei)'', the Azerbaijan lizard (''

Darevskia raddei ''Darevskia raddei'', known commonly as the Armenian lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to Eurasia. There are three subspecies. Etymology The specific name, ''raddei'', is in honor of German natura ...

)'', a toadhead agama ('' Phrynocephalus raddei)'', and Radde's mountain viper ('' Montivipera raddei)''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Radde", p. 215).

Collections

Radde was an avid

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

. His insect (and other) collections are divided:

Transbaikal Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykalye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia. The steppe and ...

and

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, ...

material is in the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Science;

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historicall ...

and

Transcaspian The Transcaspian Oblast (russian: Закаспійская область), or just simply Transcaspia (russian: Закаспія), was the section of Russian Empire and early Soviet Russia to the east of the Caspian Sea during the second half of ...

material is in the

Georgian National Museum The Georgian National Museum ( ka, საქართველოს ეროვნული მუზეუმი, tr) unifies several leading museums in Georgia. The museum was established within the framework of structural, institutional, and l ...

Zoological Section, Tbilisi. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Radde when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Interna ...

Works

His publications include: * ''Reisen im Süden von Ost-Sibirien in den Jahren 1855-59'' (“Travels in the south of eastern Siberia during the years 1855-59,” 1862–1863) * ''Vier Vorträge über den Kaukasus'' (“Four essays on the Caucasus,” 1874) * ''Die Chews'uren und ihr Land'' (“The Chews'uren and their land,” 1878) * ''Ornis Caucasica. Die Vogelwelt des Kaukasus'' (“Ornis Caucasica. The world of birds in the Caucasus,” 1884
at archive.org
* ''Das Ostufer des Pontus'' (“The east bank of the Pontus,” 1894) * ''Die Sammlungen des kaukasischen Museums'' (“The collections of the Caucasus Museum,” 1900 et seq.) In 1892, he wrote a Russian description of his voyage with the grand dukes Alexander and Sergeis Mikhailovitch.

Notes

References

* Barbara and Richard Mearns - ''Biographies for Birdwatchers'' * Anonym 1903 adde, G. F. R.''Wien. ent. Ztg.'' 22 108 * Blasius, R. 1904 adde, G. F. R. ''Journ. Ornith''. 52 1-49 * Daniel, K. 1904 adde, G. F. R. ''Münch. Koleopt. Zeitschr.'' 2 1904-1906(1) 93 * Kraatz, G. 1903 adde, G. F. R.''Dtsch. ent. Ztschr.'' 47 7 *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Radde, Gustav Botanists with author abbreviations 1831 births 1903 deaths 19th-century German botanists Explorers of Asia German ornithologists 19th-century German zoologists German entomologists Scientists from Gdańsk People from the Province of Prussia German non-fiction writers Explorers of the Caucasus German male non-fiction writers