Gerard Frederick van Tets

Gerard Frederick van Tets (1929-1995), sometimes stated as Jerry van Tets, was an English ornithologist and paleontologist.

Gerard Frederick van Tets was born in London at January 19, 1929. In 1958 he became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union. He studied at the University of British Columbia where he obtained the PhD academic degree in 1963. In November 1963 he married Patricia Anne Johnston in Vancouver, British Columbia. After the wedding he moved to Australia where he joined the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology. He made studies on bird strike damages to aircraft, and later on bird bones in the Australian National Wildlife Collection including such of the extinct Tasman Booby which he scientifically described in 1988. Van Tets was a capacity on mutton birds. He died in 1995.

The extinct New Zealand Stiff-tailed Duck (Oxyura vantetsi) was named in his honour.

[edit] Works (selected)

1965: A Comparative Study of Some Social Communication Patterns in the Pelecaniformes, 1965, The American Ornithological Union, Ornithological Monographs, Number 2 : pages 1-88 with 78 figures and 30 tables.
1969: Orange Runway Lighting as a Method for Reducing Bird Strike Damage to Aircraft.
1966: Banding of Feral Domestic Pigeons. The Australian Bird Bander 4:9
1966: Two Dutch Quail-trapping Methods. The Australian Bird Bander 4:36
1966: Bird-banding on and Near Christmas Island. The Australian Bird Bander 4:59
1970: Continent of Curiosities - Animals and Birds of Australia. (with Kurt Kolar)
1977: Guide to the Recognition and Reduction of Aerodrome Bird Hazards
1985: Kadimakara: extinct vertebrates of Australia. Princeton University Press
1988: Osteological differences between Sula and Morus, and a description of an extinct new species of Sula from Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, Tasman Sea. Notornis 35: 35-57. (with Meredith, C.W.; Fullagar, P.J.; & Davidson, P.M)