Johann Matthäus Bechstein (11 July 1757 – 23 February 1822) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

, forester

Forester

250px|thumb|right|Foresters of [[Southern University of Chile|UACh]] in the [[Valdivian forest]]s of San Pablo de Tregua, ChileA forester is a person who practices forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including timber...

, ornithologist and entomologist. In Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

, he was known for his treatise on singing birds (Naturgeschichte der Stubenvögel, Natural History of Cage Birds, 1795).

Biography

Bechstein was born in Waltershausen

Waltershausen

Waltershausen is a city in the district of Gotha, Thuringia, Germany.The town has a population of 11475 .-Sister cities: Bruay-sur-l'Escaut, France Korbach, Germany Wolbrom, Poland Hanau, Germany -External links:*...

 in the district of Gotha

Gotha (district)

Gotha is a Kreis in the middle of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Unstrut-Hainich, Sömmerda, the district-free city Erfurt, Ilm-Kreis, Schmalkalden-Meiningen and the Wartburgkreis.-History:...

 in Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

. He studied theology for four years at the University of Jena, and spent time hunting and roaming the forests as opportunities permitted. After leaving school, he taught for some years, but gave teaching up to devote himself to outdoor pursuits. In 1795, he founded the school of forestry at Waltershausen, and in 1800, the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen made him the director of the forestry school at Dreissigacker near Meiningen

Meiningen

Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....

 in the neighbouring district of Schmalkalden-Meiningen

Schmalkalden-Meiningen

Schmalkalden-Meiningen is a Landkreis in the west of Thuringia, Germany. Its neighboring districts are the districts Wartburgkreis, Gotha, Ilm-Kreis, the district-free city Suhl, the district Hildburghausen, the Bavarian district Rhön-Grabfeld, and the district Fulda in Hesse.- History :The...

. After the death of his own son, Bechstein adopted his nephew Ludwig Bechstein

Ludwig Bechstein

Ludwig Bechstein was a German writer and collector of folk fairy tales.He was born in Weimar, the illegitimate child of Johanna Carolina Dorothea Bechstein and Hubert Dupontreau, a French emigrant who disappeared even before the birth of the child, and Ludwig thus grew up his first nine years in...

.

Bechstein was a prolific zoologist and one of the first concerned with wildlife conservation: besides his ornithological work, he also published works calling for the protection of animals that were commonly considered harmful or pests at the time, such as bat

Bat

Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...

s. Bechstein's Bat

Bechstein's Bat

Bechstein's Bat is a species of vesper bat in the Vespertilionidae family.It can be found in the following countries: Austria, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Liechtenstein, Republic of Macedonia,...

 was named in his honour.

Partial list of publications

• Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands nach allen drey Reichen. 4 vols. Leipzig 1789–95; 2nd ed. 1801-09.
• Johann Lathams
  John Latham (ornithologist)
  John Latham was an English physician, naturalist and author. He was born at Eltham in Kent, and was the eldest son of John Latham, a surgeon there, and his mother was a descendant of the Sothebys, in Yorkshire....
  
  Allgemeine Übersicht der Vögel 1791–1812.
• Kurze aber gründliche Musterung aller bisher mit Recht oder Unrecht von dem Jäger als schädlich geachteten und getödteten Thiere, nebst Aufzählung einiger wirklich schädlichen, die er, seinem Berufe nach, nicht dafür erkennt, ... Ettinger, Gotha 1792–1805.
• Kurzgefasste gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte 1792–97.
• Naturgeschichte der Stubenvögel. Ettinger, Gotha 1795; 4th ed. Halle 1840.
• Naturgeschichte der Stubenthiere. Ettinger, Gotha 1797.
• Ornithologisches Taschenbuch von und für Deutschland oder Kurze Beschreibung aller Vögel Deutschlands für Liebhaber dieses Theils der Naturgeschichte. Richter, Leipzig 1802.
• Naturgeschichte der schädlichen Waldinsecten. Monath & Kußler, Nürnberg 1798–1800.
• Diana oder Gesellschaftsschrift zur Erweiterung und Berichtigung der Natur-, Forst- und Jagdkunde. Waltershausen 1797–1816.
• Ornithologisches Taschenbuch 1802–1803.
• Vollständige Naturgeschichte der schädlichen Forstinsekten: ein Handbuch für Forstmänner, Cameralisten und Dekonomen [in collaboration with Georg Ludwig Scharfenberg], Leipzig 1804-1805.
• Die Forst- und Jagdwissenschaft nach allen ihren Theilen für angehende und ausübende Forstmänner und Jäger. Gotha, Erfurt 1818–35.