José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta (variations José d'Anchieta, José Anchieta, José de Anchieta - b. October 9, 1832 in Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal, d. September 14, 1897 in

Caconda Caconda is a town and a municipality in the province of Huíla, Angola. The municipality had a population of 167,820 in 2014. It is located the Plano Alto region, approximately 280 km North of Lubango, the provincial capital city, and app ...

Portuguese Angola Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa). I ...

) was a 19th-century

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

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 ...

and naturalist who, between 1866 and 1897, travelled extensively in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, collecting

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s and

plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...

. His specimens from Angola and Mozambique were sent out to Portugal, where they were later examined by several zoologists and

botanists This is a list of botanists who have Wikipedia articles, in alphabetical order by surname. The List of botanists by author abbreviation is mostly a list of plant taxonomists because an author receives a standard abbreviation only when that auth ...

, chiefly among them J.V. Barboza du Bocage.

Life

Anchieta was born in 1832, in Lisbon, and started his studies in mathematics at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...

. Due to his fierce independence and eccentric character, however, he did not adapt well and moved to the Escola Politécnica de Lisboa (Polytechnic School of Lisbon). In 1857, one of his closest friends moved to

Portuguese Cape Verde Cape Verde was a colony of the Portuguese Empire from the initial settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 until the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. History 15th century The islands of Cape Verde was discovered in 1444 by Dom Prin ...

, a Portuguese

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

and a group of

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

in West

, and Anchieta went to join him. He spent his time studying the local

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

in the island of Santo Antão, and finally ended up helping the local inhabitants as an amateur physician (he had studied some

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

). A cholera

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...

killed most of the inhabitants and he almost died too, but he was able to return to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

after two years. Following what he thought was his vocation, he studied medicine in Lisbon,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, but could not complete the course, and returned to Africa again, this time to Angola, one of the largest West African Portuguese colonies. He was successful as an explorer of the hinterland and as a naturalist, and after studying and collecting many new animal and plant species, he returned to Portugal. Most of his collections were lost when his canoe foundered in a river, but he donated what remained to the natural history museum of the Polytechnic School. In 1865, he travelled back on his own once again to Angola. This time, he was married and his wife accompanied him. He stayed on his own in the region of Benguela, establishing a laboratory inside the ruins of a church, and exploring and collecting animals, until, in 1867, the Portuguese government hired him, ostensibly as a naturalist. But what is most probable is that Anchieta was recruited as a secret agent and informer in the

region of Angola, one of the most extreme points of its territory. He stayed there, researching, exploring and sending many specimens and letters to his scientific correspondents in Lisbon. He also helped medically in the local hospital and was much appreciated by the population as a dedicated and humane care-giving person. Little is known in the manner of documentation about this period of Anchieta's life, because most of the museum specimens disappeared, as well as his many letters to Bocage, in a catastrophic fire in the museum, in 1978. Anchieta died while returning from a zoological expedition to Caconda, in 1897, at 66 years of age, probably of the chronic consequences of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, which he and his wife caught, and which had severely undermined his health for many years. In all, according to Bocage, Anchieta's zoological output was truly prolific. He was responsible for identifying 25 new species of mammals, 46 birds, and 46 amphibians and reptiles. He didn't care much for writing scientific papers, though, but left this to his correspondents in Lisbon. Many of the species of birds, amphibians, lizards, snakes,

fishes Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

and

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur o ...

collected by him were unknown and thus were named for Anchieta with the species designation ''anchietae''. Some of them were: * Anchieta's sunbird (''Anthreptes anchietae''), a bird *

Anchieta's barbet Anchieta's barbet (''Stactolaema anchietae'') is a species of bird in the Lybiidae family. It is found in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. It is named after the Portuguese naturalist and explorer José Alberto de Oliveira A ...

(''Stactolaema anchietae''), a bird * Anchieta's tchagra (''Tchagra anchietae''), a bird * Anchieta's ridged frog (''Ptychadena anchietae'') * Anchieta's dune lizard (''

Meroles anchietae The shovel-snouted lizard (''Meroles anchietae''), also known commonly as Anchieta's desert lizard, Anchieta's dune lizard and the Namib sand-diver, is a species of lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is native to southern Africa. Et ...

'')Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Anchieta", p. 8). * Anchieta's frog (''Hylambates anchietae'') * Anchieta's tree frog (''Leptopelis anchietae'') * Anchieta's chameleon (''

Chamaeleo ''Chamaeleo'' is a genus of chameleons in the family Chamaeleonidae. Most species of the genus ''Chamaeleo'' are found in sub-Saharan Africa, but a few species are also present in northern Africa, southern Europe, and southern Asia east to Indi ...

anchietae''), a lizard * Anchieta's cobra (''Naja anchietae''), a

venomous snake Venomous snakes are species of the suborder Serpentes that are capable of producing venom, which they use for killing prey, for defense, and to assist with digestion of their prey. The venom is typically delivered by injection using hollow or g ...

* Anchieta's dwarf python (''Python anchietae''), a non-venomous snake * Anchieta's pipistrelle (''Pipistrellus anchietai''), a

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

* Anchieta's elephantfish (''Mormyrus anchietae'') * Anchieta's antelope (''Cephalophus anchietae'') * Anchieta's serpentiform skink ('' Eumecia anchietae''), a lizard * Anchieta's spade-snouted worm lizard ('' Monopeltis anchietae''), an amphsbaenian * Anchieta's agama ('' Agama anchietae''), a lizard

References

External links

* Guedes, ME
José de Anchieta, o Feiticeiro
(In Portuguese).

Species discovered by Anchieta and described by J.V. Barboza du Bocage. * Barboza du Bocage, JV: José d'Anchieta. Eulogy. ''Jornal das Sciencias Mathematicas, Physicas e Naturaes''. Academia Real de Sciencias de Lisboa. 5(18), December 189

(In Portuguese). {{DEFAULTSORT:Anchieta, Jose Alberto de Oliveira 1832 births 1897 deaths People from Lisbon Portuguese zoologists Portuguese explorers Explorers of Africa 19th-century explorers 19th-century Portuguese people University of Coimbra alumni

Life

See also

References

External links