Guillermo Mann Fischer: The zoologist

Guillermo, was affectionately called "Mito", but his name was Friedrich Wilhelm Theophilus Mann Fischer.
His parents were Wilhelm Mann Oldermann, a prominent German psychologist and philosopher and Blanca Fischer Klein.
He was born in Santiago de Chile on November 6, 1919.
When he was 6 months old, the family settled in Germany. He returned to Chile at the age of 10.
He had a sister, Serena. She was an artist and made the drawings of Guillermos books.

Guillermo early showed great interest in nature and especially for animals. His father allowed him to develop this interest and accompanied him on many adventures of exploring nature.

During his school life he was marked by presentations to their classmates about zoology. His mother made him some beautiful pictures that he showed in his explanations.

In the picture: Guilllermo (12 years) with a snake, one of the many specimens raised at home.

Zoology Coloring Book

The Marine Biology Coloring Book, Second Edition

The Botany Coloring Book

Mammals
(Peterson Field Guide Coloring Books)

He entered medical school at University of Chile, but after a year of study, a teacher seeing him interested in the animal life recommended him to study Veterinary Medicine. He moved to the veterinary school at the Universidad de Chile. He never worked as a veterinarian, because from the beginning he was dedicated to the zoology. It was a great researcher at the University of Chile.

During the years 1938 - 1939 he specialized in the University of Berlin (Germany) but he had to return to Chile at the beginning of World War II.

From his marriage to Lisselotte Wilcke was born his son Guillermo. Lisselotte was not interested in keeping up with a tireless expeditionary and the marriage failed.
In 1957 he married the woman who would boost his career and give him the support he needed: the distinguished zoologist Hildegard Zapfe. He had other four children: Leonor, Sofia, Arturo and Diana.

Despite his genius, Guillermo was very distracted and my mother has told me several anecdotes. As a child, his mother put up posters on the doors to remind him to closed it. On several occasions my father asked the nanny where he would find his shirts. The answer was always the same: "In the drawer of your dresser, doctor, where they always are." This dialogue occurred after my father had searched elsewhere and, of course, had not found his shirts.
One anecdote even worse: when my sister, Leonor, was four years old, my father forgot to pick she up from school. The teacher had to call home.

He dedicated his life to studying wildlife and did countless expeditions to Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, etc.

During this expedition he studied the pink dolphins. Then, he made a film that became a historic document after the extinction of this species. The pink dolphin was the only freshwater dolphin.

Picture: In the Bolivian jungle

General Zoology Laboratory Manual to accompany Zoology

Peterson Field Guide:
Eastern Birds' Nests

National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders & Related Species of North America

Butterflies through Binoculars:
The East A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Eastern North America
(Butterflies Through Binoculars Series)

He studied all: birds, fish, mammals, etc.

Of special interest were, for a time, vampires.

Believe it or not, bats feed nectar from the flowers.
But their cousins, the vampires, sucks the blood of farm animals.
Vampires are not just characters in movies, but a variety animal that lives hidden in caves, between darkness and humidity (in Chile can be found in a cave in the rocks between Zapallar and Papudo).

Picture: "Zum weissen Kontinent", Hans Helfritz

In 1947 he was commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture to do an expedition to the Chilean Antarctic. The government of Chile was making his first official expedition and the "Casa Antarctica", the Chilean base, was built at that time.

The reporters of the time told that Dr. Mann took more than a ton of luggage: all materials for the study of Antarctic flora and fauna.

As result of this work, Dr. Mann published the first book in the world on Antarctic biology.

Picture: "Zum weissen Kontinent", Hans Helfritz

In 1957 he founded the "Centro de Investigaciones Zoológicas ", the first research center of the fauna in South America. He was director of the Centre until his death in 1967. No one was able to continue with his work and the Centre was annexed to the Universidad de Chile.
Picture: Opening of zoological research center

The Migration of Birds:
Seasons on the Wing

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America

After researching the central area, Dr. Mann found that here lived a dinosaur named Megatherium. He made this statement after finding traces of prehistoric feces and other evidences.

In 1964 he found the fossil remains of these animals. The news had great media coverage at the time.

Megatherium is an extinct genus of mammals Pilosa order, commonly known as megatherium. They were ground sloths, relatives of current sloths lived in America since the early Pliocene or Pleistocene until 8,000 years ago, well into the Holocene, as confirmed by recent discoveries in Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Flowers:
A Guide to Familiar American Wildflowers
(Golden Guides)

A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants:
Eastern and central North America
(Peterson Field Guide)

He wrote many articles and books. All of them are now depleted.
Even today, students of veterinary medicine, in Chile, learn from the books of my father.

The book "The small mammals of Chile" was his last publication, in 1978, 16 years after his death. It was a lot of work on mammals of Chile. He finished the manuscript of the "small mammals." The "large mammal" ... unfinished. Nobody has done ... .. Yet.

My dad formed a huge library. We keep many of his books, but most were donated to the University of Concepción and the National Library, so they were available to all who want to learn.

Guillermo Mann's bibliography is extensive. I present a few examples:

- Vida de los peces en aguas chilenas. Santiago de Chile, 1954.
- Esquema ecológico de selva, sabana y cordillera en Bolivia. Santiago, Editorial Universitaria] 1951.
- Los pequeños mamíferos de Chile Concepción, Chile : Editorial de la Universidad de Concepción, 1978.
-Biología de la Antártica suramericana; 1947. Santiago de Chile, Impr. Universitaria, 1948.
- Peces de Chile / / F. Guillermo Mann. Santiago de Chile : Imprenta Stanley Manuel Rodriguez, 1950.
- Bases ecológicas de la explotación agropecuaria en la América Latina Mann Fischer, Guillermo Washington : Unión Panamericana, 1966
- Clave de determinación para las especies de mamíferos silvestres de Chile Por Mann F., Guillermo Santiago : Universidad de Chile, 1958.
- Sinopsis del reino animal Por Mann, Guillermo, Mann, Serena Santiago : Centro de Investigaciones zoologicas, 1962.

He always had time for family life and leisure.

He was very cheerful, had many friends and liked to invite everyone to barbicue at home.

He liked to sing and had a beautiful baritone voice. His colleagues told me that in the morning was the first to go to college and the others knew that he was there because they heard him singing.

Picture: Back from Costa Rica, 1963.