Early explorers of the birds of Ethiopia

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg *1795 +1876

A brief but fascinating insight into the scientific discovery of the birdlife of Ethiopia and Eritrea give Ash and Atkins (2009). Only one special aspect is to be discussed here in more detail: the role of German scientists and travelers. German researchers have discovered and described 29 of the 67 taxa listed in the Endemic Breeding Birds table, that is about 45% of the Horn of Africa endemic bird species.

The earliest description of an Ethiopia/Eritrea endemic species, still recognized today, was written by Johann Friedrich Gmelin (1789). It concerned the Dark-headed Oriole (Oriolus monacha) and goes back to an entry in the famous book "Histoire naturelle des oiseaux," written by the Frenchman Buffon. But in this book, the binary nomenclature has not been used. Thus, the Göttingen scholar had the honor of having described the first Horn of Africa endemic species according to scientific standards.

The first German field researchers on the Red Sea coast and hinterland were Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and Friedrich Wilhelm Hemprich. After extensive research travels in the Middle East and North Africa, another expedition led them to Southern Arabia and finally 1824/25 to Ethiopia (Eritrea).

34,000 specimens of animals arrived at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, for which they worked (Stresemann 1954). Ehrenberg described numerous new species, including Tockus hemprichii, which he named after his traveling companion. Ehrenberg, himself botanist and microbiologist, stated Hemprich as co-author of many scientific descriptions, although Hemprich had died on 30 June 1825 and was buried on the Red Sea island Doalhut. The holotype of Hemprich’s Hornbill  is still located in the Berlin collection.

Eduard Rüppell *1794 +1884

Among the most prominent early explorers in Ethiopia is without doubt Eduard Rüppell (Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell), whose research in the region began in 1826. Unlike Hemprich and Ehrenberg, he financed his travels and the publication of the results from his own ressources, even though there were close ties to the Senckenberg Natural History Society (Klausewitz 2002). Rüppell described 17 of the 39 endemic bird species in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Alltogether, more than 100 species bear his name as author, including spectacular zoological discoveries such as Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis), Gelada Baboon (Theropithecus gelada) and Naked Mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber). His works include the two-part travelogue "Reise in Abessinien" (Frankfurt am Main, 1838-1840), the work "Neue Wirbelthiere zu der Fauna von Abessinien gehörig", published in several richly illustrated volumes (Frankfurt am Main, 1835-1840),  and the book "Systematische Üersicht der Vögel Nord-Ost-Afrika's “ (Frankfurt am Main, 1845). All was published in German language.

Also of importance was the work of Theodor Heuglin who repeatedly traveled to eastern Africa from the year 1852 and thereby - unlike his predecessors - reached the so-called “Galla” areas in the south. The North-East Africa species list presented by him includes 754 species (Heuglin 1856). His ornithological specimens went to Christian Ludwig Brehm in Germany. In later years Heuglin evaluated the Abyssinian records and collections of Orazio Antinori and Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg. He was, after Rüppell, for many decades he leading authority on issues of birdlife in the Horn of Africa (Ash and Atkins 2009). A planned expedition to Socotra did not take place because of his untimely death in 1876

So were the Halle-born traveler Emil Riebeck and the botanist and explorer George Schweinfurt the first Germans who visited Socotra in 1881. Zoological collections made by Riebeck proved very fruitful. Several species were new to science and bear his name, including insects and mollusks (Neumann and Gedeon 2009). The birdlife was remarkable, however, been widely documented by the collections of Isaac Bayley Balfour, who spent only one year before Riebeck on the island. Nevertheless believed Hartlaub (1881), who worked on the bird collection of Riebeck, to find another new species: Rhynchostruthrus riebecki. That same year, he and Sclater had already described Rhychostrutus socotranus from the collection of Balfour (Sclater and Hartlaub 1881). As it turned out later it was the same species.

Carlo Freiherr von Erlanger *1872 +1904

Carlo Freiherr von Erlanger visited Ethiopia and Somalia in 1899-1901 and collected during this period over 20,000 insects, as well as 10,000 bird skins and other specimens. A rough idea of the logistical challenges and the uncertainties of the undertaking give the following short sentences from his travel report (Erlanger 1904): "The caravan consisted of 80 Somalis, with 120 camels, 30 Issa men and five Europeans ... During the whole journey only seven men died". Erlanger himself died 1904 at the age of just 31 years in a car accident near Salzburg (Austria). Oscar Neumann, which was initially traveled with Erlanger, but then independently explored south-west Ethiopia (Neumann 1902), described Calandrella erlangeri as a new species. Laniarius erlangeri,  described by Reichenow, is also named after Carlo von Erlanger.

The discovery of new bird species on the Horn of Africa continued until very recently. 20 of the 67 species in the Endemic Breeding Birds table were described in 20th century. The last spectacular discovery of an Ethiopian endemic bird species was the Nechisar Nightjar (Caprimulgus solala). For the first time an Ethiopian biologist, Chemere Zewdie, was involved in the scientific description of an Horn of Africa endemic bird. He is listed as species co-author (Safford et al. 1995).

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