Alexander Skutch - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Doctor Alexander Frank Skutch (May 20, 1904 – May 12, 2004) was a 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...

and writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. He published numerous scientific papers and books about bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s and several books on philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

. He is best remembered ornithologically for his pioneering work on helpers at the nest

Helpers at the nest

Helpers at the nest is a term used in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology to describe a social structure in which juveniles and sexually mature adolescents of either one or both sexes, remain in association with their parents and help them raise subsequent broods or litters, instead of...

Biography

Alexander Skutch was born in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. He received a Doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

in Botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

from Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

. He then found employment with United Fruit Company

United Fruit Company

It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...

, which had a problem with banana

Banana

Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....

diseases, for which it needed the expertise of a botanist. After an initial stay in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, Skutch traveled to Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

, Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

and Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

. During this time he fell in love with the tropics and also acquired a deep interest in birds. He began studying their habits. Skutch collected plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

s for museums to make money, but observing birds remained his life’s main focus.

In 1941 Skutch purchased a farm in Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

. There, as one of the writers of his obituary said:

"A lifelong vegetarian, Skutch grew corn, yucca and other crops, and, without running water until the 1990s, bathed and drank from the nearest stream. He believed in "treading lightly on the mother Earth". With his wife Pamela, daughter of the English naturalist, botanist, and orchidologist Charles H. Lankester, whom he married in 1950, and their adopted son Edwin, he stayed there for the rest of his life."

Skutch wrote over 40 books and over 200 papers on ornithology, preferring a descriptive style and eschewing statistics and even banding

Bird ringing

Bird ringing or bird banding is a technique used in the study of wild birds, by attaching a small, individually numbered, metal or plastic tag to their legs or wings, so that various aspects of the bird's life can be studied by the ability to re-find the same individual later...

. He died eight days before his 100th birthday, in the same year that he received the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award

Loye and Alden Miller Research Award

The Loye and Alden Miller Research Award was established in 1993 by the Cooper Ornithological Society to recognize lifetime achievement in ornithological research...

. He is universally regarded as one of the world's greatest ornithologists.

Publications

As well as numerous contributions to the scientific literature, books and book-length papers authored or coauthored by Skutch include:

1954 – Life Histories of Central American Birds I: Families Fringillidae, Thraupidae, Icteridae, Parulidae and Coerebidae. (Pacific Coast Avifauna No.31). Cooper Ornithological Society: Berkeley.
1960 – Life Histories of Central American Birds II: Families Vireonidae, Sylviidae, Turdidae, Troglodytidae, Paridae, Corvidae, Hirundinidae and Tyrannidae. (Pacific Coast Avifauna No.34). Cooper Ornithological Society: Berkeley.
1967 – Life histories of Central American highland birds. (Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club No.7). Harvard University: Cambridge.
1969 – Life histories of Central American birds III: Families Cotingidae, Pipridae, Formicariidae, Furnariidae, Dendrocolaptidae, and Picidae. (Pacific Coast Avifauna No.35). Cooper Ornithological Society: Berkeley.
1970 – The Golden Core of Religion. Holt, Rinehart and Winston: New York. ISBN 0-03-085082-7
1971 – A Naturalist in Costa Rica. University of Florida Press: Gainsville. ISBN 0-8130-0312-1
1972 – Studies of Tropical American Birds. (Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club No.10). Harvard University: Cambridge.
1973 – The Life of the Hummingbird. Crown Publishers: New York. ISBN 0-517-50572-X
1976 – Parent Birds and Their Young. (Corrie Herring Hooks series, No.2). University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-76424-3
1977 – A Bird Watcher's Adventures in Tropical America. (Corrie Herring Hooks series, No.3). University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-70722-3
1979 – The Imperative Call: A Naturalist's Quest in Temperate and Tropical America. University of Florida Press: Gainesville. ISBN 0-8130-0579-5
1980 – A Naturalist on a Tropical Farm. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03802-9
1981 – New Studies of Tropical American Birds. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). (Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club No.19). Harvard University: Cambridge. ISBN 1-877973-29-7
1983 – Birds of Tropical America. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). (Corrie Herring Hooks series, No.5). University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-74634-2
1984 – Aves De Costa Rica. (Illustrated by John S. Dunning). Editorial Costa Rica: San Jose. ISBN 9977-23-108-7
1984 – Nature Through Tropical Windows. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04745-1
1985 – La Finca De Un Naturalista. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). Libro Libre: San Jose, Costa Rica. ISBN 9977-901-20-1
1985 – Life Ascending. University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-70374-0
1985 – Life of the Woodpecker. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). Ibis Publishing: Santa Monica. ISBN 0-934797-00-5
1987 – Helpers at Birds’ Nests: A Worldwide Survey of Cooperative Breeding and Related Behavior. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). (1st edition). University Of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-150-8
1987 – A Naturalist Amid Tropical Splendor. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-163-X
1989 – A Guide To The Birds Of Costa Rica. (With F. Gary Stiles. Illustrated by Dana Gardner). Comstock Publishing Associates/Cornell University Press: Ithaca. ISBN 0-8014-2287-6
1989 – Birds Asleep. (Corrie Herring Hooks series, No.14). University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-70773-8
1989 – Life of the Tanager. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). Comstock Publishing: Ithaca. ISBN 0-8014-2226-4
1991 – Life of the Pigeon. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). Comstock Publishing: Ithaca. ISBN 0-8014-2528-X
1992 – The Origins of Nature's Beauty. Essays. (Corrie Herring Hooks series). University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-76037-X
1996 – Antbirds and Ovenbirds: Their Lives and Homes. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-77705-1
1996 – Orioles, Blackbirds, and Their Kin: A Natural History. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-1601-4
1996 – The Minds of Birds. (Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series, No.23). Texas A&M University Press: College Station. ISBN 0-89096-671-0
1997 – Life of the Flycatcher. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). University of Oklahoma: Norman. ISBN 0-8061-2919-0
1999 – Helpers at Birds’ Nests: A Worldwide Survey of Cooperative Breeding and Related Behavior. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). (2nd expanded edition). University Of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-674-7
1999 – Trogons, Laughing Falcons, and Other Neotropical Birds. (Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series). Texas A&M University: College Station. ISBN 0-89096-850-0
2000 – Harmony and Conflict in the Living World. (Illustrated by Dana Gardner). University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. ISBN 0-8061-3231-0
2002 – Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica. (With Carrol L. Henderson and Steve Adams). (Corrie Herring Hooks series). University of Texas Press: Austin. ISBN 0-292-73459-X
2006 – Moral Foundations: An Introduction to Ethics. Axios Press. ISBN 0-9661908-9-0

External links

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