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| Elke Zimmermann from right here |
Just a few weeks in the past whereas engaged on a special matter I got here throughout the unhappy information that Elke Zimmermann had died in 2019 on the age of 61. Her e book, Breeding Terrarium Animals, the English-language model of which appeared in 1986, drew on the main after which novel advances being made in Germany on the breeding of amphibians and reptiles. Elke and her father Helmut (b 1926), an architect in Stuttgart, have been very a lot a part of the group of German herpetologists on the forefront of breeding tropical frogs and toads. The e book was extremely influential throughout the English-speaking world because it was a part of a brand new wave of herpetology—the profitable and dependable breeding of amphibians and reptiles in captivity—that was spreading internationally within the Seventies and 80s. The German-language model, Das Zuchten von Terrarienteren, was revealed in 1983 when Elke was 25. The writer’s blurb, as this translation exhibits, makes the purpose about that new wave:
The breeding of amphibians and reptiles was thought of tough for a very long time; nearly solely unintended breedings have been identified. Solely lately has there been elevated effort not solely to maintain these animals in captivity for so long as doable, but in addition to breed them. On this e book, the writer describes the replica and breeding of greater than 300 species of amphibians and reptiles, with a big proportion of the animal species mentioned in additional element being bred within the Zimmermann terrariums…
I’ve not seen the German version of the e book, revealed in 1983 when Elke Zimmermann was 25, however the English-language model, revealed by the infamous Herbert Axelrod (1927-2017) beneath his TFH firm, was mentioned to comprise new materials as nicely extra pictures, i.e within the TFH home fashion.
Father, Helmut, and daughter, Elke, saved an array of animals at house. She turned significantly within the vocal communication of dart frogs throughout their complicated breeding behaviour. She continued by way of college and developed her curiosity on this subject, significantly in primates. She went on to work extensively in Madagascar, significantly on the small lemurs, the place her father was a number one mild in conservation, however had vast pursuits and established breeding colonies of a number of species again in Germany, thereby combining subject and laboratory research
From 1996 till her dying Elke Zimmermann was Professor within the Institute of Zoology within the College of Veterinary Drugs, Hannover.
To commemorate her life colleagues in primatology contributed to a particular problem of Worldwide Journal of Primatology which coated her predominant pursuits. That quantity additionally affords a glimpse of her formative years (references omitted):
Inspired by her father, Elke turned taken with zoology very early in life. She revealed her first article when she was 16 years previous on a list of reptiles, which she had noticed throughout an tour together with her household in Southern Spain. Her first article on primates adopted 2 years later, during which, collectively together with her father, she assembled suggestions for the housing of lorises (Nycticebus spp.), squirrel monkeys (Saimiri spp.), and talapoin monkeys (Miopithecus spp. At the moment, all these species have been housed in her household’s home and backyard. She continued to publish on the biology of primates, amphibians, and reptiles whereas she studied biology on the College of Hohenheim. Though she wrote her dissertation on the neurobiological foundation of acoustic communication in frogs and repeatedly revealed on amphibians till 1994, primates turned her predominant curiosity after her PhD and through her profession. She was within the evolution of primates, however in distinction to most researchers who centered on haplorrhine primates, Elke investigated the roots of the primate order and specialised on strepsirrhine primates…
I solely realised years after the occasion that in 2003 we had stayed within the lodging Elke and her colleagues used at Ampijoroa in Madagascar. Then, there was no vacationer lodging (there’s now) serving the Ankarafantsika Nationwide Park and teams picked up tenting gear at Mahajanga earlier than driving the 70-odd miles to Ampijoroa. When it was found that two double rooms on the subject station have been unoccupied, the 2 oldest {couples} have been allotted these. Initially grateful for being battle infants, we had two uncomfortable nights, not helped by the swarms of mosquitos that danced above the open drains which ran spherical the complete block. Ampijoroa is an incredible web site. A plethora of lemurs, different mammals, birds and reptiles was round each nook. However one species particularly is related to this dialogue.
One night on a stroll on the lake aspect of the sector station we had particular sightings of a species of mouse lemur solely described just a few years earlier. It was the Golden-brown Mouse Lemur, Microcebus ravelobensis, named for Lake Ravelobe at Ampijoroa. Elke Zimmermann was first writer of paper which described and named the brand new species in 1998. Notices warning of crocodiles in Lake Ravelobe need to be taken very severely. Earlier than our go to the native hen information had been killed by the Nile Crocodiles discovered there—a reality not talked about by the tour corporations as of late. Once we walked alongside the shore, we noticed the screens within the water behind which the native girls may nonetheless wash the garments. The hazard was so nice, we have been advised, even the lads had began to do the washing.
Whereas Elke Zimmermann is remembered by her scientific colleagues for her more moderen analysis on primates, herpetologists will keep in mind her earlier research on, and breeding of, amphibians and reptiles with fondness and nice admiration.
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| Golden-brown Mouse Lemur From a low-resolution video Ampijoroa, 7 November 2003 |
Radespiel U, Scheumann M, Schmidtke D. 2019. Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Elke Zimmermann. Worldwide Journal of Primatology 40, 589–591 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-019-00108-8
Radespiel U, Scheumann M. 2022. Introduction to the particular Subject celebrating the life and work of Elke Zimmermann. Worldwide Journal of Primatology 43, 539- 558 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-022-00307-w
Zimmermann, E. 1983. Das Züchten von Terrarientieren. Stuttgart : Franckh. Kosmos Verlag
Zimmermann, E. 1986. Breeding Terrarium Animals. Neptune, New Jersey: TFH Publications.
Zimmermann, E., Cepok, S., Rakotoarison, N., Zietemann, V., & Radespiel, U. (1998). Sympatric mouse lemurs in north-west Madagascar: A brand new rufous mouse lemur species (Microcebus ravelobensis). Folia Primatologica, 69(2), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1159/000021571