Augusto Ruschi

Considered the leading authority in the world on humming birds, the naturalist Augusto Ruschi dedicated his life to ecological conservation. His father was a surveyor who settled in Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo, and Ruschi virtually grew up in the forest, fascinated by plants and animals. Although he studied Law and Agronomy when young, he was self taught in his chosen profession and assiduously learned English, French, Latin and German in order to read the standard texts on botany. When he was 22, Ruschi sent 500 boxes of insects to Professor Fillipo Silvestri in Italy, accompanied by a report in which he questioned certain theories and wrote: "I have seen; you, Sir, have read". When he came to Brazil, the Italian scientist made it a point of meeting him.

In a solid scientific career, Ruschi identified and described 5 species and 11 subspecies of humming birds, and catalogued about 50 new orchids, his second area of interest. He published 400 scientific works and gave his name to a species of orchid, the "Ruschia". Among his other books was "Birds of Brazil", in which he listed around 2,700 species and subspecies of bird.

Ruschi lived on the Santa Lucia reserve in Santa Teresa, in a house built by his grandfather in the nineteenth century on an 80,000 m2 plot of land full of trees and humming birds. He transformed his residence into the Professor Mello Leitão Biology Museum, and before he died in 1986 at the age of 70, he requested permission from the Pro-Memória Foundation to be buried in the reserve.