Anthony Whitaker Explained

Anthony Whitaker
Birth Name:Anthony Hume Whitaker
Birth Date:5 September 1944
Birth Place:Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England
Death Place:Orinoco, Tasman District, New Zealand
Citizenship:New Zealand
Fields:Herpetology
Workplaces:DSIR
Alma Mater:Victoria University of Wellington
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Anthony Hume Whitaker (5 September 1944 – 20 February 2014) was a New Zealand herpetologist, contributing a 50-year career of fieldwork, pioneering research and species discoveries.[1] His is still the largest collection of reptile and amphibian specimens donated to Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.[2]

Biography

Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, on 5 September 1944, Whitaker emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1951,[3] and became a naturalised New Zealander in 1976.[4] He grew up in Upper Hutt, attending St. Patrick's College, Silverstream, and later gaining his Bachelor of Science degree majoring in zoology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1966. He married and fathered two children, and lived in Motueka for much of his life.[1] Whitaker died from a heart attack while mountain-biking near Motueka on 20 February 2014.[5]

Herpetology work

Whitaker's passion for reptiles was evident from an early age, collecting early specimens of skink while growing up in Upper Hutt. While on a family holiday in the Marlborough Sounds, the 12-year-old Whitaker had gone out to look for geckos. Upon learning of his interest, a publican in Saint Arnaud gave him a jar of geckos pickled in vodka.[1]

In 1966, he joined the Ecology Division of the DSIR, New Zealand's main scientific research institute at the time, as a lab technician and later research scientist, specialising in reptiles. By the time he left in 1977, the department's collection had grown to over 2000 specimens and was donated to the New Zealand national museum. Whitaker helped found the Society for Research on Amphibians and Reptiles in New Zealand in 1987 and was a long-serving editor of its journal, SRARNZ Notes.[1]

Both Whitaker himself and his distinguished work over many decades were widely respected by New Zealand ecologists and biologists. He produced about 230 published papers and scientific and conservation reports, mentored many in the field, and was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to herpetology.[6] He remarked at the time that one of his greatest achievements had been to recognise early on the predatory threat that rats pose to native reptile species, confirmed by later research and pest eradication programmes.[7] [8]

Whitaker has one species of skink named after him, Oligosoma whitakeri (Whitaker's skink), and by himself he named one species Mokopirirakau kahutarae, Whitaker's sticky-toed gecko or the black-eyed gecko.[9] As co-author, he has participated in describing and naming approximately two dozen other new species of reptiles: Bavayia exsuccida, Bavayia goroensis, Bavayia pulchella, Caledoniscincus constellatus, Caledoniscincus pelletieri, Correlophus belepensis, Dierogekko baaba, Dierogekko inexpectatus, Dierogekko insularis, Dierogekko kaalaensis, Dierogekko koniambo, Dierogekko nehoueensis, Dierogekko poumensis, Dierogekko thomaswhitei, Eurydactylodes occidentalis, Kanakysaurus viviparus, Kanakysaurus zebratus, Lioscincus vivae, Marmorosphax boulinda, Marmorosphax kaala, Marmorosphax taom, Mniarogekko jalu, Nannoscincus koniambo, Nannoscincus manautei, Oligosoma hoparatea, Phaeoscincus taomensis, Phasmasaurus maruia, and Sigaloseps pisinnus.[10] In addition, his specimen collection has provided holotypes for several other species, including the skinks Oligosoma chloronoton, Oligosoma stenotis, Oligosoma longipes, and Oligosoma townsi.[1]

Published works

Non-fiction books

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Anthony Hume Whitaker, MNZM (1944–2014) – a tribute . Colin . Miskelly . 28 February 2014 . . 27 December 2014.
  2. Web site: A gift of lizards – 35 years to completion . Colin . Miskelly . 2 May 2012 . . 27 December 2014.
  3. Bell. Ben D.. Anthony Hume Whitaker, MNZM. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 44. 2–3. 2014. 57–60. 10.1080/03036758.2014.926944. free.
  4. Web site: New Zealand, naturalisations, 1843–1981 . 2010 . Ancestry.com Operations . 28 November 2015 . subscription .
  5. News: Nelson Mail . . Renowned scientist dies suddenly . . 27 February 2014 . 27 December 2014.
  6. Web site: Queen's Birthday honours list 2010 . 7 June 2010 . Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet . 10 October 2018.
  7. Whitaker . A. . Lizard populations on islands with and without Polynesian rats, Rattus exulans (Peale) . Proceedings of the New Zealand Ecological Society . 1973 . 20 . 121–130 . New Zealand Ecological Society . 27 December 2014.
  8. Miskelly . Colin M. . 2023-03-06 . From farm to forest – 50 years of ecological transformation on Mana Island, New Zealand . Tuhinga: Records of the Museum of New Zealand te Papa Tongarewa . 34 . 1–46 . 10.3897/TUHINGA.34.98136. free .
  9. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Whitaker, A.H.", p. 284).
  10. Web site: Uetz . Peter . Freed . Paul . Hošek . Jiri . Search results: "Whitaker" . The Reptile Database . 2019 . 21 October 2019.