Jacques Daudin

{{Short description|Naturalist}} {{Infobox person | name = Jacques Pierre Marie Daudin | birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|10|30}} | birth_place = China | death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|10|15|1926|10|30}} | death_place = Union Island | alma_mater = Nancy-Université | occupation = Agronomist | known_for = Union Island gecko | spouse = Monique Landreat | children = 1 }}

'''Jacques Pierre Marie Daudin''' was a Chinese-born French agronomist and environmentalist, who lived and worked in the Caribbean and west Africa. Much of his later life was spent on Union Island, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Union Island gecko, scientifically described in 2005, is endemic to the island<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}}. (''Gonatodes daudini'', p. 66).</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-12-26 |title=Army of islanders to protect gecko the size of a paperclip |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64026176 |access-date=2022-12-26}}</ref> and named in his honor.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Silva |first=Fr Mark de |date=2012-06-01 |title=Jacques Pierre Marie Daudin (1926–2011) |url=https://journals.ku.edu/reptilesandamphibians/article/view/13911 |journal=Reptiles & Amphibians |language=en |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=135–137 |doi=10.17161/randa.v19i2.13911 |issn=2332-4961|doi-access=free }}</ref> He was the author of the books ''Socio-Political History of Union Island'' and ''A Natural History Monograph of Union Island''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |first= |title=Father Mark's Eulogy: Jacques Pierre Marie Daudin (1926 – 2011) |url=http://www.eccea.com/uploads/File/Jacques%20Story.pdf |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=Eastern Caribbean Coalition for Environmental Awareness}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=POWELL |first1=ROBERT |last2=HENDERSON |first2=ROBERT W. |date=2005 |title=A New Species of Gonatodes (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the West Indies |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242268241 |journal=Caribbean Journal of Science |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=6}}</ref>

== Life and career ==

Daudin was born in China to French ambassador Pierre Daudin and his wife Marie-Louise Daudin. His early schooling took place in China and in Vietnam, where he was childhood friends with future Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

Daudin graduated in 1949 with a degree in Agronomic Science from the University of Nancy in France. After graduation, he married Monique Landreat (1926-2020).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

In the 1950s, Daudin moved with his wife to the West Indies, first in Guadeloupe and then in Martinique, where he worked to improve crop diversification and banana production. His first and only child, Sylvie Ordon, was born in Martinique during this time.<ref name=":1" /> His wife worked as an audio/visual broadcaster for the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Monique Daudin, l'une des plus belles voix de l'audiovisuel martiniquais, s'est éteinte |url=https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/martinique/monique-daudin-plus-belles-voix-audiovisuel-martiniquais-s-est-eteinte-790007.html |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=Martinique la 1ère |date=15 January 2020 |language=fr-FR}}</ref>

In 1962 he was published as an inventor on a patent for a new method of preserving banana plants, which used a wax emulsion to help protect bananas against the spread of Sigatoka disease.<ref>{{Cite patent|number=US3037867A|title=Method of preserving banana plants|gdate=1962-06-05|invent1=Marie|invent2=Smith|inventor1-first=Daudin Jacques Pierre|inventor2-first=Cornelius C.|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US3037867A/en}}</ref>

He owned a house on Union Island and reportedly adopted as many as 30 children.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=News |url=http://www.eccea.com/index.php@mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=55&cntnt01returnid=44.html |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=www.eccea.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Gonatodes daudini |url=https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species.php?genus=Gonatodes&species=daudini |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=The Reptile Database}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Beolens |first1=Bo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ovZoFyLhzkC&dq=Jacques+Daudin+union+island&pg=PA66 |title=The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles |last2=Watkins |first2=Michael |last3=Grayson |first3=Michael |date=2011-09-15 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-1-4214-0135-5 |language=en}}</ref>

== Death ==

Near the last decade of his life, Daudin's health declined. He had a cancerous kidney removed in the year 2000 and later died of cancer on October 15, 2011, two weeks before his 85th birthday.<ref name=":1" />

== References ==

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daudin, Jacques}} Category:1926 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Nancy-Université alumni Category:Deaths from cancer in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Category:French agronomists Category:French environmentalists