Akeley, Carl (Ethan) (1864–1926)

US naturalists and explorer. A taxidermist, Carl worked at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago from 1985 onwards. He made many research trips to Africa, and invented a special motion-picture camera for naturalists to study wildlife with. His second wife, Mary Akeley, continued his work.

Carl worked as a taxidermist in Rochester, New York, and then at the Milwaukee Museum. By the time he relocated to Chicago, he was perfecting new techniques for making large habitat-groups of wild animals, based around sculpting realistic forms on which real skins, horns, and other body parts were placed. Carl made five trips to Africa (1896, 1905, 1909, 1926), and he died there two years after remarrying.