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• W2069972091 abstract "On 31 January 2002 Professor Karel Voous the nestor of Dutch ornithology passed away at his home in Huizen in his 82nd year. Plagued since his youth with a troublesome heart complaint, Karel nevertheless made a timely contribution to museum-based ornithological studies worldwide at a time when such work was scarcely appreciated. It must have given him great satisfaction to experience the renaissance engendered by the biodiversity debate in recent decades, resulting in a reappraisal and a prestigious boost for his own museum in Amsterdam. The bird collection at Amsterdam can rightly be called his own. Despite a long history stretching back to 1838, the illustrious society Natura Artis Magistra hosting the museum very nearly went bankrupt in the late thirties, and when Karel was employed in a rescue operation as a young student in May 1940 at the outbreak of the war the collection was in a dismal state. Every specimen (at that time more than ten thousand) passed through his hands as the bulk was moved into the cellars for greater security. Karel also undertook a daring exploit in rescuing the De Bussy collection from the cellars of another museum (‘Tropenmuseum’) annexed by the SS for the duration. In the years to come, the meticulous Voous brought the collection up to modern standards and extended it greatly by active acquisition and exchange (see Het Vogeljaar38: 103–111). Despite the interruption of his studies later in the war, Karel was soon deep into a classical examination of the Dendrocopos woodpeckers (under the supervision of L.F. de Beaufort) and had already defended his thesis in 1947 having examined some 1200 specimens from all over the world. In addition to his task of curator of the bird collection, Voous, Deputy Director of the Museum 1950–1963, held a part-time professorship at the Free University of Amsterdam (1955–1963) and continued the tradition of historical and ecological zoogeography consolidated by de Beaufort (who had retired in 1949). In the early phase of his Museum appointment, Karel undertook with his wife to assemble an authoritative avifauna of the Netherlands Antilles, and their period of fieldwork on the islands 1951–1952 may well be described as their Great Escape. A number of technical papers appeared subsequently, and also a compact field guide with colour plates by H.J. Slijper. A major publication providing an overview of Voous’ thinking on the historical zoogeography of the European avifauna appeared in both English and Dutch in 1960 in the form of an atlas (The Atlas of European Birds, Nelson, Edinburgh; later followed by an edition in German) and was widely acclaimed as ‘an exciting and original work which illuminated the principles underlying bird distribution for amateurs as well as specialists’ (Ibis117: 430, as part of the Union Medal citation). At the time this was the only source for range maps at an adequate scale, and as where relevant the world range was given, this atlas was the grandfather (or great-grandfather) of many books in the decades to follow, especially because the maps were based on immense scholarship. The colour code adopted is still being widely followed, characteristic of the care Voous bestowed on this work. With the growth of the Biology Faculty at the Free University of Amsterdam, Voous was offered a full professorship (Systematic Zoology and Zoogeography) and moved to that institution in 1964. Jan Wattel, one of his pupils, took over his duties at the bird collection at Amsterdam University, which had doubled in size during Voous’ curatorship. In his new surroundings, Voous quickly built up an active bird group, and the first of the theses prepared under his direction was defended in 1968 (in all, Karel was to inspire 13 PhD students). Throughout his career, however, Voous retained working space in the Museum, which he had done so much to promote, and continued his policy of active acquisition. Somewhat to the dismay of his countrymen, Voous enthusiastically campaigned for and secured the invitation to hold the XV International Ornithological Congress in the Netherlands in 1970. Karel Voous was promptly made Secretary General and worked in close accord with the Permanent Executive Committee and Niko Tinbergen, the eminently suitable President elect (Niko, but not Karel, had attended the 1930 Congress held in Amsterdam, with L.F. de Beaufort as Secretary General). Due to ill health, Tinbergen was unable to attend the 1970 Congress and Salomonsen from Copenhagen was elected President instead (his address, Zoogeographical and ecological problems in Arctic birds, was close to Voous’ heart). The Congress (held in The Hague, 30 August–5 September) was a major undertaking and everyone in the Amsterdam group, down to the most junior student, was pressed into service. Everything, including the ambitious excursion programme went (almost) without a hitch, and on top of this tour de force Voous was then faced with the task of editing the Proceedings (which appeared promptly as a hefty tome of 745 pages in 1972). The Congress was a wonderful opportunity for Dutch ornithologists to partake of a top-notch scientific smørgåsbord, but the worries and unremitting tasks cumulating on the shoulders of the Secretary General proved too heavy a load to carry for long. On top of all this Karel had played a prominent role in the national organizing group of the European Conservation Year 1970 (N70). Voous never regained his earlier elasticity and accepted early retirement in 1975 at the age of 55. In that same year the B.O.U. honoured him with the Union Medal. At the occasion of their seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations in 1976 the Netherlands Ornithologists’ Union made him an honorary member, sharing the honour with Niko Tinbergen. It might be surmised that with his retirement the ornithological world had heard the last of Karel Voous, but in fact these years saw the fruition of a number of long-term projects. A life-long interest in owls, shared with his wife Henny through more than fifty years, culminated in the 320-page treatise Owls of the Northern Hemisphere (Collins, 1988) and published in a large format to do justice to the plates and field sketches by Ad Cameron. This book was acclaimed ‘Bird book of the year’ by British Birds. In 1995, a biographical dictionary covering ornithology in the Netherlands in the twentieth century was published (in Dutch) with the title In de Ban van Vogels (‘Under the Spell of Birds’). Every active ornithologist born before 1 January 1950 was accorded a biographical sketch with reference list and often a portrait! Begun as a modest account of the history of the Club van Nederlandse Vogelkundigen, this project from the mid-seventies snowballed and became a broad survey of some 605 pages of small print, all of it handwritten by Karel himself (and typed and re-typed by Tineke Prins, his erstwhile patient secretary at the Institute). Undoubtedly, Voous, with his broad knowledge and multifarious contacts among both amateurs and professionals, was the only person qualified for the task and with his meticulous scholarship and extensive correspondence assembled a veritable Fundgrube of facts and evaluations covering a very interesting period in Dutch ornithology, embracing both the rise in ethology and the proliferation of field and laboratory studies on ecology, nowadays fused in what has come to be known as behavioural ecology. Voous not only surmounted his task as sole author, but played a major role in wheedling funds from a broad range of Foundations in addition to the original sponsors (the Netherlands Ornithologists’ Union and the Club van Nederlandse Vogelkundigen) to see the book into print in an attractive format. Aside from these personal triumphs, Voous was closely associated from the beginning with the new Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (chief editor Stanley Cramp) that started to appear in 1977. A major contribution was made from his own Museum at Amsterdam, with Jan Wattel and Cees Roselaar sharing responsibility for the sections on plumage, measurements and geographical variation (one of the ‘evergreen’ elements of the Handbook). Voous devoted considerable care to overseeing their texts, and was still one of the editors when the ninth and last volume of this mammoth undertaking (by then under the chief editorship of Christopher Perrins) appeared in 1994. In the final volume, Max Nicholson looked back on this enterprise and payed tribute to the ‘small expert team in the Netherlands’ filling the gap and providing ‘a vital contribution to the balance and authority of the work’. Following the demise of his friend Van Marle, Voous also saw the checklist of Sumatra birds into print in the BOU series (BOU Check-list No.10.). Other editorships which Voous took very seriously concern his long-standing association with Ardea (thirty conscientious years, see Van Rhijn, Ardea80: 201–202) and Limosa (1957–1981, see Limosa55: 35). Of a retiring, even formal, disposition Voous epitomized the popular conception of the academic as an esoteric being, surrounded by books and specimens and rarely venturing far from his desk. Nevertheless, through skilful management by Henny, and the warm regard of his many friends, Voous kept in touch and was able to visit many ornithological hotspots worldwide, which he enjoyed immensely. Most of us will remember him through his many letters and erudite scholarship, and all of us have a well-thumbed copy of his Atlas close to hand. Perhaps his greatest contribution was to bridge the gap between professional and amateur, and armed with his tact in combination with his vast storehouse of knowledge he was a much sought after authority right to the end. His famous ornithological library amassed over a long lifetime will go to his old Museum in Amsterdam where it will join the journals library of the Netherlands Ornithologists’ Union. Many honours came to Karel. He was especially proud of the Union Medal of the BOU and was accorded Honorary Membership in the American, British, French, Netherlands and Spanish Ornithological societies, and in the bird conservation organization of the Netherlands (Vogelbescherming, 1974) and among other royal decorations was awarded the Order of the Golden Ark from Prince Bernhard in 1981 as a tribute to his conservation activities. His bibliography includes 7 books and about 350 articles." @default.
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