Tadas Ivanauskas (December 16, 1882 – June 1, 1970) was a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

, and one of the founders of

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) (, VDU) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known as the University of Lithuania, but ...

Biography

He was born in Lebiodka Manor (today in Belarus) as a third child of Leonard Iwanowski and Jadwiga Reichel. After finishing Warsaw Gymnasium in 1901, Ivanauskas moved to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, where he studied in the 1st gymnasium of the city. In 1903, he studied at the natural sciences department of the Saint Petersburg University. He met and befriended Lithuanian students here and learned the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian (, ) is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic languages, Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of t ...

. In 1905, he moved to Paris, studied at Sorbonne University Nature-history faculty and graduated in 1909. Since 1904 he was a member of the Lithuanian society ''Lituania''. Together with another early twentieth-century Lithuanian activist, Michał Römer, Ivanauskas gave lectures about Lithuania 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 ...

in 1905. In 1909, he again entered Saint Petersburg University, as

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

did not recognize foreign diplomas, and finished with a first-grade diploma in 1910. During his studies, he was active in ''Lithuanian student society'', and was elected as chairman. In 1910, in Saint Petersburg, he established the natural sciences visual devices laboratory ''Zootom'', which prepared various biological, botanical, anatomical and mineralogical devices. In the summertime, he travelled around Lithuania collecting material for his devices. In 1914 and 1917, Ivanauskas participated in scientific expeditions into Northern Russia (

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

and

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

) and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. In 1918 Ivanauskas returned to Lithuania and together with his wife Honorata opened a Lithuanian school. In 1920, he moved to Kaunas and worked as an adviser in the Ministry of Agriculture of Lithuania, also helped organize Higher courses, that later became the University of Lithuania. Together with Konstantinas Regelis organized Kaunas Botanical Park in 1923. Together with his wife, he started organizing the annual ''National day of birds'' and ''Tree planting'' days. He was a professor in University of Lithuania (later

) from 1922 until 1940, and in 1929, became the head of the Zoology Department. He became a professor at the re-established

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( Lithuanian: ''Vilniaus universitetas'') is a public research university, which is the first and largest university in Lithuania, as well as one of the oldest and most prominent higher education institutions in Central and Ea ...

between 1940 and 1941. He returned to this position in 1944, which he held until 1956. He simultaneously held a professorship at the Kaunas Medical Institute from 1954 until 1970. Among his other achievements, he is known for opening one of the first

bird banding Bird ringing (UK) or bird banding (US) is the attachment of a small, individually numbered metal or plastic tag to the leg or wing of a wild bird to enable individual identification. This helps in keeping track of the movements of the bird an ...

stations in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, at Ventė Cape in 1929. He also founded the Zoological Museum in 1918, the Kaunas Botanical Garden in 1923, Žuvintas reserve in 1937, and the Kaunas Zoo in 1938. Ivanauskas published 37 books and brochures, the most famous of them - ''Birds of Lithuania''. Since 1941 he was a full member of the

Lithuanian Academy of Sciences The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA (, ) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that would strengthen the welfare ...

Nationality

Born as Tadeusz Iwanowski in Lebiodka, Grodno Region of today's

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, in a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Lithuanian noble family loyal to the heritage of

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

, he did not know the

until 1905. Even so, Ivanauskas considered himself to be Lithuanian and dedicated his life to Lithuania. He opened the first Lithuanian school with his wife in 1918. There was a noted episode during Polish–Lithuanian War, as one of his brothers during ceasefire transferred Tadas' taxidermical collection through the front line into Lithuania. The other three brothers of Ivanauskas identified themselves with the other two nationalities of former

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

, two ( - politician and engineer and Stanisław Iwanowski - lawyer) chose to become Polish, and one Vacłaŭ Ivanoŭski (politician) - Belarusian (although he would live in interwar Poland).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanauskas, Tadas 1882 births 1970 deaths People from Lida district Saint Petersburg State University alumni University of Paris alumni Academic staff of Vilnius University Academic staff of Vytautas Magnus University Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Lithuanian biologists Lithuanian zoologists Soviet biologists Soviet zoologists