Maria Koepcke

Maria Koepcke (born Maria Emilie Anna von Mikulicz-Radecki, 15 May 1924 – 24 December 1971) was a German ornithologist known for her work with Neotropical bird species. Koepcke was a well-respected authority in South American ornithology and her work is still referenced today. For her efforts, she is commemorated in the scientific names of four Peruvian bird species and, along with her husband, a Peruvian lizard species.

Biography Maria Emilie Anna von Mikulicz-Radecki was born in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany on 15 May 1924, the daughter of Felix von Mikulicz-Radecki, a university professor of gynaecology, and Käthe Finzenhangen. Her father's family descended from Polish nobility and the Polish surgeon Jan Mikulicz-Radecki was a relative of hers.

As a young woman, Koepcke set out to study animals. It was in 1949 that Koepcke obtained her doctorate in zoology from the University of Kiel. During her time in Kiel, she met her future husband, Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, also a student of zoology. After receiving their degrees, the two traveled to Peru in order to study birds and other wildlife native to the area and they were married there in 1950. a visitor's centre, until it closed in 1967. The Koepckes' only child, a daughter named Juliane Margaret Beate Koepcke, was born in Lima in 1954.

Koepcke died at the age of 47 following the crash of LANSA Flight 508 in the Peruvian jungle. On 24 December 1971, she and Juliane boarded the flight to travel to Pucallpa, where Hans-Wilhelm was working at the time, to spend Christmas there with him. The plane crashed due to a lightning strike during a heavy storm. Separated during the crash, it later was determined that Koepcke had been mortally wounded and died several days afterwards from her injuries. Her daughter, Juliane, was the only survivor of the crash, having fallen from , still strapped into her seat that, apparently, cushioned her landing. Although injured, without food, and unable to find her mother, the teenager then hiked for eleven days through the rainforest until she found help. Several species were also named after her. Koepcke's screech owl, Megascops koepckeae Koepcke's hermit, Phaethornis koepckeae Koepke's hairy-nosed bat, Mimon koepckeae Selva cacique, Cacicus koepckeae Sira curassow, Pauxi koepckeae Frost's iguana, Microlophus koepckeorum (genitive plural, named in honor of both Maria and her husband Hans-Wilhelm)