Achille Joseph Urbain (9 May 1884 – 5 December 1957) was a French

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

born in

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

Biography

In 1906 he obtained his degree from the national veterinary school at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, afterwards attaining a bachelor's degree in

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

(1912) and a doctorate of sciences with a thesis involving

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tr ...

(1920) During his career, he worked in a military veterinary research laboratory, and in the meantime, conducted studies as a

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...

and immunologist at the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. Th ...

.La Recerche, L'actuealite des sciences
The forgotten founder of Vincennes Zoo Bois de Vincennes In 1931 he resigned from military service, and in 1934 was appointed director of the Vincennes Zoo in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. From 1942 to 1949, he was director of the

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

. In 1937 he scientifically described the

kouprey The kouprey (''Bos sauveli''), also known as the forest ox and grey ox, is a possibly extinct species of forest-dwelling wild Bovinae, bovine native to Southeast Asia. It was first scientifically described in 1937. The name ''kouprey'' is derive ...

, based on a young male individual captured in

Preah Vihear Province Preah Vihear (, UNGEGN: ''Preăh Vĭhar'', ALA-LC: ''Braḥ Vihār'' ; lit. 'sacred sanctuary') is a province (''khaet'') of Cambodia. It borders the provinces of Oddar Meanchey and Siem Reap to the west, Kampong Thom to the south and Stung Tr ...

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

Selected publications

*Achille Urbain: "Le parc zoologique du bois de Vincennes", ''La Revue de Paris,'' August 15, 1934. *Achille Urbain: "Guide officiel avec plan du parc zoologique du bois de Vincennes", 1935. *Achille Urbain:
Le kou-prey ou bœuf gris cambodgien
, ''Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 62(5)'', 1937, pp. 305–307. *Achille Urbain: "Le Kou Prey ou bœuf sauvage cambodgien", ''Mammalia'', vol. 1, 1937, pp. 257–258. *Achille Urbain: "La réaction de fixation dans les tuberculoses humaines et animales", 1938. *Achille Urbain, Paul Rode, and M. A. Pasquier: "La collection des bovinés asiatiques du Parc zoologique du Bois de Vincennes", ''Mammalia'', vol. 3, 1939, pp. 122–125. *Achille Urbain:
Une nouvelle espèce de bovidé asiatique
, ''Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences'', vol. 209, 1939, pp. 1006–1007. *Achille Urbain: ''Psychologie des animaux sauvages : instinct, intelligence'', Flammarion, Paris, 1940. *Achille Urbain, Paul Rode: ''Les singes anthropoïdes'', Collection Que sais-je?, N°202, Presses universitaires de France, Paris, 1946.WorldCat Search
published works by Urbain

References

1884 births 1957 deaths 20th-century French biologists Zoo directors Scientists from Le Havre French veterinarians National Museum of Natural History (France) people {{France-biologist-stub