Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetHans Christian Cornelius Mortensen
Ornithologist and teacher
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Ballerup Municipality, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
About Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen
- Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen (27 August 1856 – 7 June 1921) was a Danish teacher and ornithologist.
- He was the first to employ bird ringing for scientific purposes. Mortensen was born in Jonstrup on the island of Zealand, Denmark.
- After completing secondary school in 1874 he began studies in first theology and later in medicine and zoology at the University of Copenhagen without finishing any of these studies.
- He then worked as a schoolteacher at different schools in the Copenhagen area before, in 1888 and despite the lack of a university degree, became a master at the High School of Viborg in Jutland where he stayed for the rest of his life.
- From 1909 he held the post as a senior master.
- In 1891 he married Ingeborg Lemming (1858-1938), a fellow teacher and feminist who assisted him with his bird ringing.
- The couple had no children. Mortensen's first successful experiments with bird ringing took place in 1899 with common starlings.
- Most were caught in nest boxes with an automatic closing mechanism.
- Later he also ringed white storks, herons, gulls and various species of duck.
- It is said that he personally ringed more than 6000 birds during his lifetime.
- He made most of his bird rings himself, cutting them from aluminium sheet and stamping each with an address and an individual number.
- From 1906 he received some financial assistance from the Carlsberg Foundation. In 1906 he was a cofounder, with Eiler Lehn Schiøler, of the Danish Ornithological Society.
- In 1909 he was made a corresponding member of the Hungarian Ornithological Society. Hans Christian C.
- Mortensen was a very distinctive character.
- As a teacher he was both feared by and popular among his students.
- He went on field trips with the students, something unusual at that time.
- He was also known as a keen piano and cello player.
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