Biography

American ornithologist who worked for many years for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Ernest Holt (born in Barachias, Alabama) began his career as a field biologist with the Bureau of Biological Survey (1912-1917), where he became a close friend of Smithsonian ornithologist Alexander Wetmore. He went on to carry out work for the Standard Oil Company and the National Geographic Society in the south-western U.S., Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. He travelled to the latter two countries in 1929-1931, collecting plants and wildlife with Wilhelm Gehriger and E.R. Blake as part of the National Geographic Society Boundary Survey. It was at this time that Holt and his companions were the first naturalists to ascend the 1,200 metres to the top of Cerro Yapacana, though they only retrieved plant material at the base of the mountain.

In 1932 he joined the Audobon Society as Sanctuary Director and in 1933 became a conservation biologist with the Soil Conservation Service. In 1937 he was elected to the Washington Biologists' Field Club, of which he served as vice president (1949-1950). He was also president of the Society of Wildlife Specialists (the Wildlife Society) in 1936, and rose to chief of the Biology Division at the Soil Conservation Service. Holt was active throughout his life publishing numerous papers on soil-wildlife relationships as well as articles dealing with his favoured topic, birds, especially in The Auk. Ernest Golsan Holt should not be confused with the British ichthyologist, Ernest Wiliam Lyons Holt (1864-1922).

Sources:
O. Huber and J.J. Wurdack, 1984, "History of Botanical Exploration in Territorio Federal Amazonas, Venezuela", Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, 56: 38
M.C. Perry, 2007, The Washington Biologists' Field Club: its Members and its History (1900-2006): 158.