Richard Böhm
{{short description|German zoologist and explorer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Richard Böhm
| image = Böhm,_Richard.jpg
| alt = Rich ard Boom
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1854 October 1
| birth_place = Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
| death_date = 1884 March 27 (aged 29)
| death_place = Katapana, Katanga
| nationality = German
| other_names =
| occupation = Zoologist and Explorer
| years_active = 1877 - 1884
| known_for = Ornithology
| notable_works =
}}
Richard Böhm (1 October 1854 − 27 March 1884){{Cite book|title=Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate|last=Beolens|first=Bo|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0300103595|location=New Haven and London}} was a German zoologist and explorer.
Life
Richard Böhm was the son of Ludwig Böhm, a prominent Physician and Franziska Louise (born Franziska Meyerlinck).{{Cite web|last=Biographie|first=Deutsche|title=Böhm, Richard - Deutsche Biographie|url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd116220589.html#ndbcontent|access-date=2021-10-17|website=www.deutsche-biographie.de|language=de}} As a child, he received a copy of Brehms Tierleben for Christmas, which "became a source of unimagined pleasure" for the young Böhm.{{Cite book|last=Böhm|first=Richard|title=Von Sansibar zum Tanganjika : Briefe aus Ostafrika nach dem Tode des Reisenden|publisher=F. A. Brockhaus AG|year=1888|location=Leipzig|pages=IX}} He studied zoology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena with the Darwinist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) and attained a doctorate in 1877. His dissertation was on Helgoland leptomeduses. In April 1880, he and Paul Reichard went on an expedition to Zanzibar and then, in East Africa, the east bank of Lake Tanganyika and the southeast of Lake Upemba, which he discovered. His correspondence appeared in 1888 under the title Ostafrika, Sansibar und Tanganjika heraus: Von Sansibar zum Tanganjika, Briefe aus Ostafrika von Dr. Richard Böhm (J. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1888 Ed. Herman Schalow). Böhm wrote numerous articles in the Journal of Ornithology from 1882 to 1887.{{Cite book|title=World Who's Who in Science: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Scientists from Antiquity to the Present|publisher=Marquis Who's Who|date=June 1, 1968|isbn=978-0837910017|location=Chicago|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/worldwhoswhoinsc0000unse}} He was one of the first zoologists to research the animals between the East-African steppe and West-African forest and discovered numerous new species of birds. He died of an attack of malaria.
= Species Named After Böhm =
Anton Reichenow (1847–1941) and Herman Schalow (1852–1925) dedicated bird species to him.
File:Boehm's Bee-eater - Malawi S4E2687 (22658131571).jpg
- Merops boehmi (Reichenow 1882)
- Sarothrura boehmi (Reichenow 1900)
- Neafrapus boehmi (Schalow 1882)
- Muscicapa boehmi (Reichenow 1884).
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohm, Richard}}
Category:German ornithologists
Category:German explorers of Africa
Category:Scientists from Berlin
Category:19th-century German zoologists