Tadeusz Vetulani

Tadeusz Bolesław Vetulani (13 March 1897 – 24 February 1952) was a Polish agriculturalist and biologist, associate professor of Adam Mickiewicz University in animal husbandry. He was a pioneer of biodiversity research in Poland and conducted notable research into forest tarpan and the Polish koniks, launching restoration and breeding schemes.

In the years 1915–1916 he studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, and in the years 1919–1922 at Jagiellonian University in agriculture. Zbigniew Jaworski of the Polish Academy of Sciences says that "based on his research and observations, he hypothesized that a forest variety of the tarpan (Equus cab. gmelini Ant., forma silvatica Vet.) had split off from the populations living in the steppes of Eastern Europe and had survived into the mid 18th century in the lands of Poland, Lithuania, and Prussia."

From 1938, Vetulani was co-editor of the German journal "Zeitschrift für Züchtungsbiologie." In 1939 he represented Poland in Zürich in an international conference on breeding.

During World War II Vetulani lived in Kraków, working as a clerk in the Polish Red Cross from 1940 to 1943. He was a spokesperson for the organization against the occupation authorities. He also aided in the care of Polish prisoners of war. Vetulani rejected all proposals for collaboration with the Nazis and also refused to join the committee appointed to audit the Katyn graves, not wanting to serve the German propaganda.

Between 1945 and 1952 worked in restoration and increasing the breeding of the Polish konik. In 1949 he received the full title of Professor of Animal Husbandry.

On 5 June 1949 he married Marie Godlewska. Their son Zygmunt was born in 1950.

Tadeusz Vetulani died of a heart attack on 24 February 1952. He had fainted while working in a laboratory in Krakow during a scientific trip, and died the same day. He was buried at the Rakowicki Cemetery.

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