Editing Armand David (section)

==Biography==
[[Image:Espelette WWF.jpg|thumb|Multilingual plate at his birthplace from the [[World Wildlife Fund]], with text in [[Basque language|Basque]], French and English.]]
Born in [[Espelette]] near [[Bayonne]], in the north of [[Basque Country (historical territory)|Basque Country]], in [[Pyrénées-Atlantiques]] ''[[département]]'' of [[France]], he entered the [[Congregation of the Mission]] in 1848, having already displayed great fondness for the natural sciences. Ordained in 1851,<ref name="BnF"/> he was in 1862 sent to [[Beijing|Peking]], where he began a collection of material for a [[museum]] of [[natural history]], mainly [[zoology|zoological]], but in which [[botany]], [[geology]], and [[palaeontology]] were also well represented.

At the request of the [[France|French]] government, important specimens from his collection were sent to [[Paris]] and aroused the greatest interest. The [[Jardin des Plantes]] commissioned him to undertake scientific journeys through China to make further collections. He succeeded in obtaining many specimens of hitherto unknown animals and plants, and the value of his comprehensive collections for the advance of systematic zoology and especially for the advancement of animal [[geography]] received universal recognition from the scientific community at Paris in April, 1888. He had found in China all together 200 [[species]] of wild animals, of which 63 were hitherto unknown to zoologists, and 807 species of [[bird]]s, 65 of which had not been described before.<ref name="CE">{{CathEncy|wstitle=Armand David}}</ref> He made a large collection of [[reptile]]s, [[amphibian]]s, and [[fish]]es and handed it over to specialists for further study.  Also, a large number of [[moth]]s and [[insect]]s, many of them hitherto unknown, were brought to the museum of the Jardin des Plantes. What Father David's scientific journeys meant for [[botany]] may be inferred from the fact that among the [[rhododendron]]s which he collected no less than fifty-two new species were found and among the [[primula]]e about forty, while the Western Mountains of China furnished an even greater number of hitherto unknown species of [[gentian]].

The most notable of the animals 'found' by David, which were hitherto unknown to [[Europe]]ans, were the [[giant panda]] in [[Baoxing County]] and [[Père David's deer]]. The latter had disappeared with the exception of a few preserved in the [[garden]]s of the emperor of China, but David succeeded in securing a specimen and sent it to Europe. David also sent back the first [[emerald ash borer]] specimen.<ref>{{cite news|last=Miller |first=Matthew |title=Battle of the Ash Borer: Decades after Beetles Arrived in Michigan, Researchers Looking to Slow Devastation |url=http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/interactive/article/20140727/NEWS01/307270001/Battle-ash-borer-Decades-after-beetles-arrived-Michigan-researchers-looking-slow-devastation |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140801175724/http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/interactive/article/20140727/NEWS01/307270001/Battle-ash-borer-Decades-after-beetles-arrived-Michigan-researchers-looking-slow-devastation |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 August 2014|work=[[Lansing State Journal]]|accessdate=20 August 2014}}</ref> In the midst of his work as a naturalist Father David did not neglect his [[missionary]] labours, and was noted for his careful devotion to his religious duties and for his obedience to every detail of his order's rules.

{{botanist|David|David, Armand}}