African Mammal Project (Smithsonian Institution)

Parent Organization

National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Division of Mammals

Description

Henry W. Setzer, curator at Division of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History, conceived and directed the project in which more than 40 collectors worked in more than 20 countries across Africa, resulting in over 63,000 specimens now housed in the National Museum of Natural History. Specimens collected mammals as well as ectoparasites. Collected specimens were primarily Rodentia and Chiroptera, though 208 genera are represented. Collecting was primarily completed with multiple transect lines of snap traps, but also with hunting, roost searching, mist-netting, and specimen purchasing. Surveyed localities included a variety of zones, focusing on Northern Savanna and Southern Savanna biotic zones but also covering the Mediterranean, Sahara Desert, Guinea High Forest, and Southwest Arid, and to a lesser extent the Southwest Cape and Afromontane zones. Countries covered include: Algeria, Benin (Dahomey), Botswana (Bechuanaland or Bechuanaland Protectorate), Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Chad, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia). Principle collectors include: Stanley B. Akpan, John H. Case, C. G. Coetzee, Ron E. Cole, Richard M. Davis, John E. W. Dixon, Stephen D. Durrant, Julius C. Geest, Piet J. Geldenhuys, S. W. Goussard, 0. F. Graupner, A. Frank Hallett, Alan R. Hardy, Dean E. Harvey, Bruce J. Hayward, Michael G. Hearst, Ted A. Heist, Robert D. Hepplewhite, Dorothy L. Herbert, H. John Herbert, George R. Hughes, A.Kofi, A. V. W. Lambrechts, James E. LeDuc, J. Carl Lingebach, S. J. Liversedge, Tim N. Liversedge, Thomas J. Mclntyre. Alvin L. Moore, Wallace P. Murdoch Jr., Harry L. Norman, J. J. L. Pretorius, Gary L. Ranck, I. L. Rautenbach, Arthur C. Risser Jr., C. Brian Robbins, Lynn W. Robbins, Duane A. Schlitter, Henry W. Setzer, James H. Shaw, Alan R. Silberstein, and Ralph E. Vaden.

Source

Schmidt, David F. Ludwig, Craig A. Carleton, Michael D. (2008). The Smithsonian Institution African Mammal Project (1961-1972): An Annotated Gazetteer of Collecting Localities and Summary of its Taxonomic and Geographic Scope. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10088/7187

From

1961

To

1972

Topic

Form/Genre

Organization name