Reuben David (19 September 1912[1] – 24 March 1989) was a zoologist and the founder of the Kankaria Zoo in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
He was born into a Bene Israel Jewish family in Ahmedabad.[2] He was the youngest son of Joseph David.[3] He was a self-taught veterinarian. He was invited by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in 1951 to create a zoo in the city.[2] He also founded the Kankaria Zoo (now Kamala Nehru Zoological Garden), the Chacha Nehru Balvatika (Children's Park) and the Natural History Museum, later named after him.[4][5][6][7] He had lost his speech due to cancer.[6] He also served as an advisor for Sundervan in Ahmedabad and Indroda Park in Gandhinagar.[4]
He co-authored The Asiatic Lion (1991) with M. A. Rashid who was a retired chief conservator of forests under Government of Gujarat.[4]
He was the Fellow of the Zoological Society (FZS).[8] He was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1975.[4]
Australian anthropologist Colin Groves discovered the prehistoric warthog in 1981 and named the Central Asian boar after him, Sus scrofa davidi.[5][8]
Author Esther David is his daughter.[5]
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