Andreas Reischek - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Andreas Reischek was an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n taxidermist

Taxidermy

Taxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...

, naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

, ornithologist

Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

and collector notable for his extensive natural history collecting expeditions throughout New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

as well as being notorious for acts of grave robbing

Grave robbing

Grave robbery, grave robbing, or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a tomb or crypt to steal artifacts or personal effects. Someone who engages in this act is a grave robber or tomb raider...

there. He added materially to the understanding of the biology and distribution of the New Zealand avifauna.

Early years

Reischek was born in Linz

Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

, Austria

Austria

. After attending school for a few years he worked as an apprentice to a baker

Baker

A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...

and developed a strong interest in natural history, also becoming skilled in taxidermy. He saw war service in Tyrol

County of Tyrol

The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

in 1866 during the Third Italian War of Independence

Third Italian War of Independence

The Third Italian War of Independence was a conflict which paralleled the Austro-Prussian War, and was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire.-Background:...

and also served as a gamekeeper

Gamekeeper

A gamekeeper is a person who manages an area of countryside to make sure there is enough game for shooting, or fish for angling, and who actively manages areas of woodland, moorland, waterway or farmland for the benefit of game birds, deer, fish and wildlife in general.Typically, a gamekeeper is...

and guide before working as a taxidermist in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. He married Adelheid Hawlicek on 5 May 1875.

New Zealand

In 1877 Reischek was chosen by Ferdinand von Hochstetter

Ferdinand von Hochstetter

Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand Ritter von Hochstetter was a German geologist.He was born at Esslingen, Württemberg, the son of Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Hochstetter , a clergyman and professor at Bonn, who was also a botanist and mineralogist...

to travel to New Zealand for two years to help set up displays at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, then under the directorship of Julius von Haast

Julius von Haast

Sir Johann Franz "Julius" von Haast was a German geologist. He founded Canterbury Museum at Christchurch.-Biography:...

.

Much of Reischek’s early work in New Zealand centred on the museums in Christchurch, Auckland

Auckland War Memorial Museum

The Auckland War Memorial Museum is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history , natural history, as well as military history.The museum is also one of the most iconic Auckland buildings, constructed in the neo-classicist...

and Wanganui

Wanganui

Whanganui , also spelled Wanganui, is an urban area and district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Manawatu-Wanganui region....

but, after his initial two year contract was completed, he made several extended collecting expeditions over the next ten years, covering most of New Zealand and its sub-Antarctic islands, collecting biological

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

and ethnographical

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

specimens, including Māori skull

Human skull

The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...

s and mummified

Mummy

A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...

cadaver

Cadaver

A cadaver is a dead human body.Cadaver may also refer to:* Cadaver tomb, tomb featuring an effigy in the form of a decomposing body* Cadaver , a video game* cadaver A command-line WebDAV client for Unix....

s robbed from burial sites. On his expeditions he was constantly accompanied by his dog "Caesar", who saved his life on more than one occasion.

Reischek collected not only for museums and private collectors, but also, and primarily, for himself. His ornithological collecting has been subsequently criticised for such reckless actions as shooting 150 specimens of the rare Stitchbird

Stitchbird

The Stitchbird or Hihi is a rare honeyeater-like bird endemic to the North Island and adjacent offshore islands of New Zealand. It became extirpated everywhere except Little Barrier Island but has been reintroduced to three other island sanctuaries and two locations on the North Island mainland...

on Little Barrier Island at a time when it had become extinct everywhere else. He was strong, physically fit and a good linguist, becoming fluent in both English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

and Māori

Maori language

Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...

. In 1885 he was elected a Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

of the Linnean Society of London

Linnean Society of London

The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...

Later years

When Reischek returned to Austria in 1889 he took with him a huge personal collection of over 14,000 items. Ornithological specimens alone numbered over 3000, including many of now extinct

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

species such as the Huia

Huia

The Huia was the largest species of New Zealand wattlebird and was endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. Its extinction in the early 20th century had two primary causes. The first was rampant overhunting to procure Huia skins for mounted specimens, which were in worldwide demand by...

, and is one of the most complete in existence of New Zealand's birds. The collection was eventually bought by friends of Reischek and presented to the Imperial Natural History Museum

Imperial Natural History Museum

The Imperial Natural History Museum or Imperial Royal Natural History Court Museum of Austria-Hungary was created by Emperor Franz Joseph I during an extensive reorganization of the museum collections, from 1851–1876, and opened to the public on August 10, 1889.Located in Vienna, the Museum was...

in Vienna.

Two years after his return his wife gave birth to a son, Andreas. In 1892 he was asked to superintend the establishment of the Francis-Caroline Museum in Linz, the town of his birth, where he died in 1902. He is commemorated in the name of Reischek's Parakeet

Reischek's Parakeet

Reischek’s Parakeet is a small green parrot confined to 21 km2 Antipodes Island, one of New Zealand’s subantarctic islands, which it shares with a congener, the larger Antipodes Island Parakeet.-Taxonomy:...

, endemic to New Zealand’s Antipodes Islands

Antipodes Islands

The Antipodes Islands are inhospitable volcanic islands to the south of—and territorially part of—New Zealand...

Early years

New Zealand

Later years

Further reading