UNA BREVE HISTORIA DE LA ORNITOLOGÍA EN LA ARGENTINA

DI GIACOMO, ADRIÁN; DI GIACOMO, ALEJANDRO

ORNITOLOGIA NEOTROPICAL

Neotropical Ornithology Society

Lugar: Montreal; Año: 2008 vol. 19 p. 401 - 414

1075-4377

The first notes taken on birds of Argentina were from the time of the Spanish colony (18th and early 19th centuries) through the explorations of travelers such as Azara and D’Orbigny. The 19th century was marked by the presence of foreign and local naturalists, such as Hudson who collected samples for the museums of Europe and USA. During this time the national Natural History Museum was created, having an ornithology section, and thus the first national specimen collections were started. The Sociedad Ornitológica del Plata (today “Aves Argentinas”) was founded in 1916, and 1917 saw the birth of El Hornero, the first journal on Neotropical ornithology. In the first decades of 1900, Dabbene appeared as the great promoter, together with other renowned foreign ornithologists; they intensified the study of our birds by undertaking important expeditions. Olrog, a Swedish zoologist, was another important figure who built up large collections and, in 1959, published the first identification field guide to the birds of Argentina. The succeeding generations of ornithologists were a varied mix of naturalists and scholars. The first modern field guides and sound recordings appeared towards the end of the 80’s and helped to set many people in motion who were interested in the study of birds. However, existing workgroups originated in 1990 by arrivals that had either been motivated during postgraduate studies abroad, or by foreign visitors, or also coming from other branches of science. Paradoxically, the ornithologists of today were not to mingle – with the exception of very few cases – with the traditional schools that had established in Argentina since the early days of ornithology.