Heinrich, Bernd

Heinrich, Bernd (1940–  ) zoologist, ecologist; born in Bad Polzin, Germany. He came to the U.S.A. in 1950 when his parents moved to Maine. After doing research as a zoology fellow at the University of California: Los Angeles (1970–71), he was an entomologist at the University of California: Berkeley (1971–80) before becoming a professor of zoology at the University of Vermont (Burlington) (1980). His early research made major contributions to studies of ravens and owls. In 1970 he began studying temperature regulation and energy economics in bumblebees, and postulated that these bees maintain a body temperature above the ambient environmental temperature; he wrote Bumblebee Economics (1979) for both the scientist and lay reader. He was a marathon runner who called the bumblebee a "supreme endurance athlete."