[FEATURE] Descendant of #British diplomat #Swinhoe travels back in time
By Joseph Yeh, CNA staff reporter
For biology lovers in Taiwan, Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877) is arguably the most famous name in the island's history, as one can literally find his name in hundreds of indigenous animals, birds and insects.
There's Odorrana swinhoana, a species of frog, Nesiohelix swinhoei, a kind of land snail, and Rusa unicolor swinhoei, the Formosan sambar deer, to name just a few.
All told a staggering 227 species of birds, nearly 40 species of mammals, 246 species of plants, over 200 species of terrestrial snails and freshwater malacofauna, plus over 400 species of insects, were named or systematically categorized by Swinhoe, according to Taiwan's National Museum of Natural Science.
It's a legacy that has carved out a special place for Taiwan in the world's biological history.
To Christopher Swinhoe-Standen, the name Swinhoe has an even deeper meaning because he is Swinhoe's "first cousin four-times removed," and he recently concluded a trip to Taiwan in search of his ancestor's footprints.
Speaking to CNA in a phone interview Monday, the 58-year-old Swinhoe-Standen said that while he never came across Swinhoe's name in U.K. textbooks, he grew up hearing the story of his ancestor from his mother, the family's historian.
Among the stories his mother told him were those involving Swinhoe's adventures in Asia, where he mostly lived from 1855 to 1875.
