Leonhard Hess Stejneger (30 October 1851 – 28 February 1943) was a Norwegian-born American ornithologist, herpetologist and zoologist.

His father was Peter Stamer Steineger, a merchant and auditor; his mother was Ingeborg Catharine (née Hess).

[1][3] In 1880, Stejneger ordered a walking cane with a built-in collector's gun which would serve him in his specimen collection until the end of his life.

On arriving in the US, he immediately went to the Smithsonian Institution to meet Spencer Fullerton Baird after taking some time sitting in a park to brush up on his English vocabulary.

[1] Stejneger participated in numerous expeditions to the northern parts of the North American continent.

Stejneger published more than 400 scientific works on birds, reptiles, seals, the herpetology of Puerto Rico, and other topics.

[1] During his Bering Island trip, he became fascinated by the life of Georg Wilhelm Steller, an 18th-century naturalist who had previously visited there.

In 1900, he was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exposition for his work on fur seals management and conservation.