Education
He studied ornithology at the University of Lausanne, and performed wildlife studies in the Tunisian desert from 1893 to 1897.
He studied ornithology at the University of Lausanne, and performed wildlife studies in the Tunisian desert from 1893 to 1897.
On his return to Europe he continued his studies at Cambridge and Berlin. In 1900 and 1901 with Oscar Rudolph Neumann, he went to East Africa (what is now Ethiopia and Somalia) and investigated and collected many thousands of insect and avian specimens. Erlanger died in an automobile accident in Salzburg on 4 September 1904, one day shy of his 32nd birthday.
Erlanger is credited with naming 40 new ornithological taxa, and has several zoological species named after him, such as:
Erlanger"s lark, Calandrella erlangeri (Neumann 1906)
Ptychadena erlangeri (Ahl, 1924) an Ethiopian frog
Somali boubou, Laniarius erlangeri (Reichenow, 1905)
Erlanger’s gazelle, Gazella erlangeri (Neumann, 1906)
His name is also associated with the subspecies Madoqua saltiana erlangeri Neumann, 1905.