The Smithsonian Institution African Mammal Project (1961-1972): An Annotated Gazetteer of Collecting Localities and Summary of Its Taxonomic and Geographic Scope

Schmidt, David F., Craig A. Ludwig, and Michael D. Carleton. The Smithsonian Institution African Mammal Project (1961–1972): An Annotated Gazetteer of Collecting Localities and Summary of Its Taxonomic and Geographic Scope. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, number 628, viii + 320 pages, frontispiece + 150 figures, 20 maps, 12 tables, 2008. — Conceived and directed by Henry W. Setzer, the African Mammal Project (1961–1972) covered portions of 20 countries concentrated in the northern, western, and southern regions of Africa and generated over 63,000 specimens of mammals. The geographic foundation of this ambitious field program is documented as an annotated gazetteer that provides coordinate data for 785 cardinal collecting localities, collectors’ names and dates of collection, general ecological descriptions, and mammalian genera obtained at each site. In georeferencing localities, emphasis was given to primary archival sources—original specimen labels, collectors’ field journals, and contemporaneous field maps. Most localities surveyed fell within the Northern Savanna and Southern Savanna biotic zones. The Mediterranean, Sahara Desert, Guinea High Forest, and Southwest Arid zones were moderately sampled; the Southwest Cape and Afromontane zones were minimally represented. The principal inventory method applied by field teams involved multiple transect lines of snap traps, supplemented by hunting, roost searching, mist-netting, and specimen purchasing. Total collecting effort varied immensely among countries, from 13 days (Chad) to 770 days (South Africa), and the number of specimens obtained was strongly correlated; length of dedicated site inventory mostly ranged from 3 to 8 days of collecting effort per cardinal locality. The resulting 63,213 vouchers include examples of 15 orders, 47 families, and 208 genera of African mammals; Rodentia (70%) and Chiroptera (20%) are most abundantly represented. The historical genesis of the African Mammal Project and its scientific goals as developed by H. W. Setzer are reviewed in the introduction to the gazetteer. Cover images, left to right: Figure 140 (detail), Map 1, and Figure 144 (detail). Published by Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press P.O. Box 37012, MRC 957 Washington, D.C. 20013-7012 www.scholarlypress.si.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian Institution African Mammal Project (1961–1972) : an annotated gazetteer of collecting localities and summary of its taxonomic and geographic scope / David F. Schmidt, Craig A. Ludwig, and Michael D. Carleton. p. cm. — (Smithsonian contributions to zoology ; no. 628) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Mammals—Collection and preservation—Africa. 2. Mammals—Type specimens—Catalogs and collections—Washington (D.C.) 3. National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)—Catalogs. 4. Mammals— Africa—Geographical distribution. 5. Mammals—Africa—Classification. I. Schmidt, David F. II. Ludwig, Craig A. III. Carleton, Michael D. IV. Title.