Leopold von Schrenck


Peter Leopold von Schrenck was a Russian zoologist, geographer and ethnographer.

Biography

Schrenck came from a Baltic German family, and was born and raised in the, Sumsky Uyezd, Kharkov Governorate. He received his doctorate from the Imperial University of Dorpat, and then studied natural science in Berlin and Königsberg. He joined the crew of the Aurora in the circumnavigation of the world.
In 1853 Schrenck was sent by the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences to explore the Amurland on board the schooner Vostok. He reached the mouth of the Amur in September 1854 with the botanist Carl Maximowicz. In February 1855 he visited Sakhalin and then explored the Amur in the spring and summer. In 1856 he returned overland to Europe, via Lake Baykal. He published his findings in his Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande in den Jahren 1854-56, in two quarto volumes, 1858–60, with more than 350 pages on birds. In later years Schrenck turned his attention to the study of the native peoples of Russia. On 10 November 1879 he was appointed director of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St Petersburg.
A number of animals are named after Schrenck, including the following species.

Selected publications

Über die Luchsarten des Nordens und ihre geographische Verbreitung. Ein Beitrag zur zoologischen Geographie, Dissertation Dorpat 1849Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande in den Jahren 1854–1856, 4 vols., St. Peterburg 1858–1900
  • * Vols. 1 & 2 Zoologie
  • * Vol. 3 Die Völker des Amurlandes
  • * Vol. 4 Meteorologische Beobachtungen Die von der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften ausgerüstete Expedition nach den neusibirischen Inseln und dem Jana-Lande : Zur Vorgeschichte der Expedition, St. Petersburg 1887