His casts of ant nests and botanical drawings appear in numerous museums of art and natural history, from Hong Kong to Paris.

His family emigrated to the United States in 1946, where his father worked in rocket development for the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, Texas, and later for the Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Tschinkel is known for his thorough and inventive experimental design, often involving the construction of special contraptions (stimulatorium,[2] trash can kiln,[3] ice nests[4]) and re-purposing methods from other fields of inquiry.

He is an advocate of scientific natural history and the "bottom-up" approach to biological research, noting that, "...empirical evidence is the horse that pulls the cart of theory through testing, and the three move along the road to understanding.

In addition to numerous professional honors and accolades, Walter Tschinkel is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, co-founder of the environmental advocacy group, Friends of The Apalachicola National Forest, and a committee member for The Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest.