Theodore K. Lorenz

Theodore K. Lorenz or Fyodor Karlovich Lorenz (Russian: Федор Карлович Лоренц; 15 March 1842 – 5 October 1909) was a German ornithologist and a taxidermist of repute who worked in Moscow. For his exceptional artistic specimen preparations, he was called the "Stradivarius of taxidermy".

Lorenz, Fyodor Karlovich

Lorenz was born in Vilyun, now in Poland. His father was a textile specialist from Saxony who moved to Russia where Lorenz grew up. He was educated at home and after studying three years at school he began to work from the age of 16 in a music company. His father later moved to the Bogorodsk district where Lorenz enjoyed hunting excursions and began to work on taxidermy. He worked briefly, following his father's business, in dyeing. He then became a specimen preparator and participated in the Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition of 1872. He worked as a taxidermist in the Zoological Garden of the Imperial University in Moscow. He trained Aleksandr Kots and worked with many zoologists and trained a number of taxidermists. He explored the Caucasus and Kirghizistan as part of faunal surveys and was a specialist on the birdlife of the region. He became an expert on the biology of the black grouse. He also took an interest in hybridization and plumage variation. A number of his specimens were made for the Darwin Museum.

Lorenz was an authority on Tetraonidae and Phasianidae and an illustrated monograph on the grouse was published posthumously in 1910.[1]

Lorenz is buried in the Vyedenskiye Gory cemetery in Moscow. A species of snake, Ramphotyphlops lorenzi, is named in his honor.[2]