Karl Hoffmann (naturalist)

Karl Hoffmann was a German medical doctor and naturalist, born in Stettin in the Kingdom of Prussia on 7 December 1823 and dying on 11 May 1859. He studied at the University of Berlin, and in 1853 he travelled to Costa Rica with Alexander von Frantzius to collect natural history specimens. With his wife Emilia he settled in San José, where he ran a consultation clinic and a small pharmacy from his home, and to supplement his income he also sold wine and liquor. He served as a doctor in the Costa Rican army during the invasion led by William Walker in 1856. He died of typhoid in Puntarenas. Several animals commemorate him, among them Hoffmann's two-toed sloth, Hoffmann's woodpecker, the sulphur-winged parakeet and Hoffmann's earth snake.