Nikolai Zarudny
Nikolai Alekseyvich Zarudny was a Ukrainian-Russian explorer and zoologist who studied the flora and fauna of Central Asia.
He was born in Gryakovo, Ukraine. He wrote his first ornithology book in 1896 and made five expeditions in the Caspian region between 1884 and 1892. He led other expeditions to Persia supported by the Russian Geographical Society and the Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He collected nearly 3,140 specimens of birds and 50,000 insects. After the Russian Revolution, his collection was nationalized by the Bolsheviks and moved to the museum at the University of Tashkent. For his work, the Russian Geographical Society awarded him the Przhevalsky Medal. His last work on the ornithology of Turkestan region was not completed as he died of accidental poisoning. He published 218 monographs in the course of his life and named many species. Among the species and other taxa named after Zarudny are Zarudny's jird, Zarudny's rock shrew, Zarudny's worm lizard, Schizothorax zarudnyi, and the distinctive Asian subspecies of the desert sparrow.Footnotes
