{{Short description|Filipino ornithologist, zoologist and conservationist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Dioscoro S. Rabor | image = <!--(filename only)--> | image_size = | alt = | caption = A photo of Rabor, taken in peninsular Malaysia on November 23, 1965 by the American ornithologist Elliott McClure | birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|05|18}} | birth_place = Cebu City, Philippine Islands | death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|03|25|1911|05|18}} | death_place = Laguna, Philippines | residence = | citizenship = | fields = Ornithology, Zoology | workplaces = | alma_mater = University of the Philippines<br />Yale University | doctoral_advisor = Sidney Dillon Ripley | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = Angel C. Alcala<ref name="su">{{cite web|url=http://www.su.edu.ph/alumni/alcala_conferral.htm|title=Lessons Learned and Responses to Academic Challenges at Silliman University|author=Alcala, Angel C.|date=August 9, 2007|publisher=Silliman University|accessdate=August 6, 2011}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="alcala">{{cite web|url=http://www.rmaf.org.ph/madc/archive/files/biography_9afc9c268d.pdf|title=Biography of Angel C. Alcala|year=1992|publisher=The 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service|accessdate=August 6, 2011}}{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = Rabor | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | footnotes = | spouse = Lina N. Florendo Rabor }}
'''Dioscoro Siarot Rabor''' ({{Birth date|1911|05|18}}–{{Death date|1996|03|25|1911|05|18}}), also known as '''Joe Rabor''', was a Filipino ornithologist, zoologist, and conservationist. Known as the "Father of Philippine Wildlife Conservation", he led more than 50 wildlife expeditions in the Philippines, authored 87 scientific papers and articles, and described 69 new bird taxa and numerous mammal species.<ref name="kennedy">{{cite journal|author=Kennedy, Robert S.|author2=Miranda, Hector C. Jr.|year=1998|title=In Memoriam: Dioscoro S. Rabor|journal=The Auk|volume=115|issue=1|pages=204–205|publisher=American Ornithologists' Union|doi=10.2307/4089125|jstor=4089125|issn=0004-8038|url=http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v115n01/p0204-p0205.pdf|accessdate=August 6, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100806062103/http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v115n01/p0204-p0205.pdf|archive-date=August 6, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 1965, he brought public attention to the endangered status of the Philippine Eagle.<ref name="kennedy"/><ref name="pef">{{cite web|title=Focusing on the Philippine Eagle for the conservation of nature|url=http://www.philippineeagle.org/index?pageval=thepef|publisher=The Philippine Eagle Foundation|accessdate=August 6, 2011}}</ref><ref name="drvc">{{cite web|url=http://www.dvrconline.org/phileagle.html|title=The Philippine Eagle: 'King of Birds'|author=Puracan, Karen|year=1995|publisher=Delaware Valley Raptor Center|accessdate=August 6, 2011|archive-date=October 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023095033/http://www.dvrconline.org/phileagle.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Biography ==
=== Early life and education === Born in Cebu City, Philippines, Rabor studied at the University of the Philippines for his bachelors and masters degrees. He pursued Ph.D. studies at Yale University, where he was advised by ornithologist Sidney Dillon Ripley.<ref name="kennedy" /> In 1974, Silliman University granted him an honorary Sc.D.<ref name="kennedy" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Alumni Updates (May 18–24) |url=https://su.edu.ph/1704-alumni-updates-may-18-24/ |access-date=2022-09-28 |website=Silliman University |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Career === Rabor led many expeditions throughout the Philippine Islands to collect animal specimens, making a significant contribution to knowledge about Philippine wildlife and ecology. He often traveled with his wife, Lina N. Florendo Rabor, and their six children. Over several decades, he visited 25 islands in the Philippines and collected over 60,000 bird specimens. His field collection efforts allowed for the description of many new taxa, including 8 species and 61 subspecies of birds.<ref name="kennedy" />
He held teaching and research positions at several institutions, including Silliman University;<ref name=":0" /> Mindanao State University; and the College of Forestry, University of the Philippines Los Baños.<ref name="kennedy" />
Beginning in 1965, Rabor called attention to the decline of the Philippine Eagle,<ref name="pef" /> an endangered species found only in the forests of the Philippine Islands that faces widespread habitat loss.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clark |first=William S. |last2=Sharpe |first2=Christopher J. |last3=Boesman |first3=Peter F. D. |last4=Marks |first4=Jeffrey S. |date=2020 |title=Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), version 1.0 |url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/grpeag1/cur/introduction |journal=Birds of the World |language=en |doi=10.2173/bow.grpeag1.01|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2017-09-18 |title=In the Aerie of the Philippine Eagle |url=https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/in-the-aerie-of-the-philippine-eagle/ |access-date=2022-09-28 |website=All About Birds |language=en-US}}</ref> His efforts to educate people around the world about the challenges facing the Philippine Eagle helped spur the involvement of Peace Corps volunteers in Philippine Eagle conservation projects.<ref name="pef" /><ref name=":1" /> One of the volunteers, ornithologist Robert Kennedy,<ref name=":1" /> returned to the Philippines to continue working on eagle conservation and awareness efforts, including successfully lobbying to change the name of the species from the "Monkey-eating Eagle."<ref name="pef" /><ref name=":1" /> Kennedy and colleagues named Lina's Sunbird (''Aethopyga linaraborae'') after Lina Rabor.<ref>{{Cite Q|Q104115278|quotation=Lina N. Florendo Rabor accompanied her husband, the preeminent Philippine ornithologist Dioscoro S. Rabor, on more than 40 scientific expeditions throughout the Philippines from 1936 to 1975 and contributed to some 80 papers and books published by Dr. Rabor and his colleagues.Throughout this extraordinary effort she remained a silent partner. We are pleased to name this new and beautiful sunbird after this remarkable person.}}</ref>
==Awards and recognition== * Fulbright Research Fellowship, Field Museum of Natural History * Guggenheim Fellowship, Organismic Biology & Ecology (1950)<ref name="gf">{{cite web|url=http://pt.gf.org/fellows/11901-dioscoro-s-rabor|title=Dioscoro S. Rabor|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|accessdate=August 6, 2011}}</ref> * Research Associate, Field Museum of Natural History * Research Associate, Yale Peabody Museum * Research Associate, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History * Research Associate, Denver Museum of Nature and Science * Research Associate, Bernice P. Bishop Museum * Corresponding Fellow, American Ornithologists' Union * Guggenheim Fellowship, Organismic Biology & Ecology (1956)<ref name="gf"/> * Research Fellowship in Zoology, Yale University (1957-1958) * Research Fellowship in Zoology, Chicago Natural History Museum (1957-1958) * United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (1957-1958) * Research Grantee, Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund (1962,1963-1964) * Travel Grantee, International Council for Bird Preservation (1962) * Research Grantee, Yale University (1962) * Travel Grantee, 1st World Conference on National Parks in Seattle, Washington (1962) * Travel Grantee, 13th International Ornithological Congress in Cornell University, New York (1962) * Honorary Research Associate Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. (1963) * Honorary Curator in Ornithology in the National Museum of the Philippines (1964) * Member of the Planning Committee of the following International Ornithological Congresses: :*XIV, Oxford (1966) :*XV, The Hague (1970) :*XVI, Canberra (1974)
==Eponyms== Rabor is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Philippine lizard, ''Lipinia rabori''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Rabor", p. 215).</ref>
==See also== * List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1950
==References== {{Reflist|2}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabor, Dioscoro S.}} Category:Filipino biologists Category:Ornithologists Category:1911 births Category:1996 deaths Category:20th-century zoologists Category:Yale University alumni Category:Filipino taxonomists