Carl Hialmar Rendahl (born

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat o ...

26 December 1891; died

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

2 May 1969) was a Swedish

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

ist and painter. He is most famous in Sweden for his authorship of ''Fågelboken'', the "bird book" which sold 60,000 copies. Rendahl attended

Jönköping University Jönköping University (JU), formerly Högskolan i Jönköping, is a private Swedish university college located in Jönköping, Sweden. The college has approximately 832 employees and 10,992 students. Jönköping University is a young profession ...

, graduating in 1910 and moving on to

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

where he studied

Zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

Botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

gaining a Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1916. He was awarded a Licentiate's degree in Zoology in 1918 and he then achieved a Doctor of Philosophy and was appointed an Associate Professor in Zoology 1924. In 1933 he was appointed Professor at the

Swedish Museum of Natural History The Swedish Museum of Natural History (), in Stockholm, is one of two major museums of natural history in Sweden, the other one being located in Gothenburg. The museum was founded in 1819 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but goes bac ...

. As a student, he worked as a freelance journalist, mainly writing popular science articles, and he also translated books into the Nordic languages as well as publishing drawings. He started working at the Vertebrate Department of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in 1912 and started ringing birds in 1913. From 1913 he wrote a series of zoological papers and dissertations about vertebrates. He edited the biography of

Alfred Brehm Alfred Edmund Brehm (; 2 February 1829 – 11 November 1884) was a German zoologist and writer. His multi-volume book '' Brehms Tierleben'', which he co-authored with Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, Wilhelm Haacke, and Richard Schmidtlein, becam ...

between 1929 and 1931. He was the editor for the series of 12 books called ''Vi och vår värld'' ("Us and our World"), two of which he wrote. He also studied the fish collected in Australia by the Swedish expedition led by

Eric Mjöberg Eric Georg Mjöberg (6 August 1882 – 8 July 1938) was a Swedish Zoology, zoologist and Ethnography, ethnographer who led the first Swedish scientific expeditions to Australia in the early 1900s, and worked in Indonesia. The plant ''Vaccinium ...

and by the Norwegian Knut Dahl, describing several new species from each. Rendahl was honoured as a Professor Emeritus in January 1958 and retired from the Museum. He continued his work up to a week before he died. He worked on, among other things, the

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

of birds which migrated into and out of Sweden. His main interests were in ichthyology, especially the

stone loach The stone loach (''Barbatula barbatula'') is a European species of fresh water ray-finned fish in the family Nemacheilidae. It is one of nineteen species in the genus '' Barbatula''. Stone loaches live amongst the gravel and stones of fast flowi ...

es of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Cobitidae Cobitidae, also known as the true loaches, is a family of Old World freshwater fish. They occur throughout Eurasia and in Morocco, and inhabit riverine ecosystems. Today, most " loaches" are placed in other families (see below). The family includ ...

and the flat loaches of the family

Balitoridae Balitoridae, the hillstream loaches or river loaches, is a family, of small fish from South, Southeast and East Asia. The family includes about 202 species. They are sometimes sold as "lizardfish" or (in Germany) "flossensaugers". Many of the spe ...

, and

herpetology Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

. He was also a very active artist with a sizeable portfolio of watercolours, gouache, wax crayon and pastels, often abstracts which reflected his compositions and reflect his lively imagination and appreciation of form and colour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rendahl, Hialmar 20th-century Swedish zoologists Swedish ichthyologists Swedish ornithologists Swedish artists 1891 births 1969 deaths Stockholm University alumni

See also

References