Dr. Johann Büttikofer was a Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 zoologist.

Büttikofer was born in Ranflüh (part of Rüderswil

Rüderswil

Rüderswil is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.-Geography:Rüderswil has an area, , of . Of this area, or 68.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 23.7% is forested...

, Canton of Bern) in Emmenthal

Emmenthal

Emmenthal may refer to:*Emmental, the valley of the Emme River in Switzerland*Emmental , which was originally produced in the Emmental...

. After his retirement he settled in Bern.

Scientific career

Büttikofer studied biology

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...

 at Bern. In 1879 he joined the staff of the Royal Zoological Museum in Leiden, becoming curator between 1884 and 1897. He made two trips to Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

, the first was from 1879 to 1882, and the second from 1886 to 1887. During his trip, he collected the first complete specimens of the pygmy hippopotamus

Pygmy Hippopotamus

The pygmy hippopotamus is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa . The pygmy hippo is reclusive and nocturnal...

 known to science. The specimens were taken to the Natural History Museum of Leiden. In 1893-94 he accompanied the Nieuwenhuis

Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis

Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis was a Dutch explorer who travelled extensively in central Borneo in the 1890s, recording valuable ethnographic information about the Dayak people and making biological collections....

 expedition to central Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

.

Between 1897 and 1924 he was Director of the Zoological Garden

Diergaarde Blijdorp

Diergaarde Blijdorp is a zoo in the northwestern part of Rotterdam, one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands...

 at Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

. In 1895 he became dr. h.c. at the university of Bern.

Works

• Mededeelingen over Liberia. Resultaten van eene onderzoekingsreis door J. Büttikofer en C.F. Sala in de jaren 1879 - 1882. (1883)
• "Reisebilder aus Liberia: Resultate geographischer, naturwissenschaftlicher und ethnographischer Untersuchungen während der Jahre 1879-1882 und 1886-1887.", 1890.
• Büttikofer J. (1917) Die Kurzschwanzaffen von Celebes Zoologische Mededelingen
  Zoologische Mededelingen
  Zoologische Mededelingen publishes papers and monographs on vertebrate and invertebrate systematics. The publisher is the National Museum of Natural History Naturalis in The Netherlands. The first issue of Zoologische Mededeelingen appeared in 1915, as the official journal of Naturalis' predecessor...
  
  Vol. 3 p. 1-86 PDF

Sources

Voous, K.H., 1994, In de ban van vogels, Scheffers, Utrecht.