Pierre Sonnerat was born on 18 of August 1748 in Lyon, France.
In 1767, Sonnerat began his career as private secretary to his uncle; Pierre Poivre, who was appointed as Intendent of Isle de France and Ile Bourbon.
In 1768, Pierre Sonnerat met with Philibert Commerson; the naturalist who had disembarked in Port Louis from the Bougainville’s expedition. Sonnerat worked for Commerson on his surveys of the Fauna and Flora of Isle de France and Ile Bourbon.
Pierre Sonnerat participated in expeditions organised by Pierre Poivre to the Philipines and South Moluccas during the period of 1769 to 1772 and he published an account of this trip in 1776 under the title Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée. During these travels Sonnerat collected birds and plants specimens.
In 1773, PIerre Sonnerat left for France and met Carl Thunberg at the Cape of Good Hope and worked together on the collection of plant and animal specimens. Sonnerat became a correspondent to Adanson at the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris and to the Cabinet du Roi.
From 1775 to 1781 Pierre Sonnerat performed as the naval commissary of the French settlements at Yanam and Pondicherry. He also spent periods in Ceylon, Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope and visited China before returning to France.
Sonnerat stayed in France for four years, during which time he married Marguerite Ménissier”. He published his observations of the countries he had visited since 1774 in his two-volume work, Voyage aux Indes orientales et à la Chine.
In 1786, Pierre Sonnerat was posted in Pondicherry and in 1789 at Yanam. In 1795, as England and France were in war, Sonnerat was briefly imprisoned of war by the English administration
In 1813 Sonnerat returned to Europe meeting Joseph Banks in London and came back to Paris in 1814 where he died shortly afterwards.
In his lifetime Sonnerat has described numerous species of plants and animals. He had sent some 300 botanical specimens to Adanson from Isle de France, the Coromandel Coast, China, Malabar and Malacca, and kept a personal collection of butterflies from his journeys.
Sonnerat is honoured in the genus Sonneratia and the grey junglefowl Gallus sonneratii is named after him.