When General LAizaro Cardenas was President of the Republic of MA(C)xico,
encouragement was given by his administration to linguistic groups of
native American peoples to record in printed form, eventually in their
native languages, accounts of their cultural accomplishments and
accounts of the natural resources of the regions concerned. For the
Tarascan "Empire" centering in the state of MichoacAin, a committee of
Mexicans and citizens of the United States of America was formed to
forward these aims. Under the leadership of ethnologists on the
committee, especially Professor Daniel Rubin F. de la Borbolla and
Professor Ralph L. Beals, invitations to coAśperate in the studies were
extended to biologists. One of us (Hall) was invited to investigate
the fauna of native wild mammals. In 1943, assisted by a fellowship
which Hall at that time held from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation, and with support from Miss Annie M. Alexander, through the
University of California Museum of Vertebrate ZoAślogy, most of
March--March 3 to March 29, 1943--was spent in the state of MichoacAin.
Bernardo Villa R. of the Instituto de BiologA-a de la Universidad de
MA(C)xico was a member of the party from March 23 to 27. Previously,
March 4 to 22, Roberto AlcAintar from the Universidad de MichoacAin, in
Morelia, participated in the field work. Mr. J. R. Alcorn was active
in the collecting from the beginning until he entrained for the United
States on March 24. The remainder of the field party was made up of E.
Raymond Hall, his wife Mary F. Hall, and their three sons, William
Joel, Hubert H., and Benjamin D. Hall.
From March 4 to 15 we collected at, and in the vicinity of, PAitzcuaro.
We were housed in two cottages kindly made available by Sr. Efrain
Buenrostro, in Campo Turista Janitzio, 200 meters northwest of the
railroad station in Colonia RevoluciA cubedn. The shore of Lake PAitzcuaro,
the cultivated fields surrounded by stone fences, and the oak and pine
forests roundabout provided varied habitats.
From March 16 to 23 we collected in the territory 1 to 6 miles south
of TacAimbaro, making our headquarters in the Europa Hotel, in the
town. The steep main street of TacAimbaro with native pines at the
upper end descends to plantings of bananas and sugar cane at the lower
end. Our collecting all was done below (south of) the town in the
semitropical country and none at all was done above (north of) the
town.
From March 24 to 27 (three night's trapping) we collected in the
vicinity of Zamora, making our headquarters in rooms diagonally across
the street intersection from the Hotel Fenix.
The resulting specimens, approximately 650 in number, were deposited
in the Museum of Vertebrate ZoAślogy at the University of California at
Berkeley.
A noteworthy coincidence is that on the very day, February 26, on
which we crossed the international border into MA(C)xico at Laredo, the
beginning of the new volcano, ParicutA-n, was announced in the daily
press. Our collecting of mammals in MichoacAin was nearly all done in
sight of the towering white plume of this rapidly heightening volcanic
cone and frequently our traps were thickly dusted with its wind-borne
ash. Our eagerness at that time to have stations established for
observing the effects on vertebrates of the deposition of ash, was
gratified in that Dr. Robert T. Hatt independently had the same idea
and such observations at appropriate places and times were begun by
him and staff members of the Museum of ZoAślogy of the University of
Michigan. One of us, Villa, was privileged to share in these
observations in the spring of 1947.
This continuing interest in the mammals of MichoacAin has made it seem,
to us, the more desirable to place on record our findings as to kinds
and occurrence of species. In doing this we have examined the
collections made previously on Cerro TancA-taro and vicinity by the
field party led by Mr. Harry Hoogstraal from the University of
Illinois and the Chicago Natural History Museum. The specimens of
mammals collected by this field party are in the Chicago Natural
History Museum and we are obliged to Mr. Karl P. Schmidt, Mr. Colin C.
Sanborn and the late Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood for the privilege of
studying this material.
Drs. William H. Burt and Emmet T. Hooper, of the Museum of ZoAślogy of
the University of Michigan, lent to us for examination five specimens
of bats, of as many species, which they had taken in MichoacAin. Drs.
Remington Kellogg and Henry W. Setzer have provided us with data on
specimens of deer and peccary from MichoacAin which are in the United
States National Museum. Specimens in the Institute of Biology of the
University of MA(C)xico have been used. Financial provision by the Kansas
University Endowment Association has enabled us to obtain specimens
needed for comparison from other parts of MA(C)xico.
In addition to the materials mentioned above we have used published
references to mammals of MichoacAin and have prepared the following
lists of kinds of mammals positively known to us to occur in the
Mexican state of MichoacAin. It is noteworthy that specimens recorded
in the literature from AcAimbaro, MichoacAin, no longer are to be
ascribed to MichoacAin, since a relocation of the boundary between the
states of MichoacAin and Guanajuato, places AcAimbaro in the latter
state.
Our aims were: (1) To record kinds of mammals positively known from
the state, under the correct scientific name, and vernacular names in
English, Spanish, and Tarascan. The first Tarascan name is given in
the spelling used by Tarascans followed by the phonetic equivalent in
English in parentheses. (2) To indicate the geographic range of each
kind in the state, and, (3) To record miscellaneous information which
it is thought probably will be useful in one way or another to other
students whose work certainly will lengthen the list of kinds of
mammals known from MichoacAin and otherwise add to our knowledge of
them.
Several kinds of bats, of which we lack records, certainly occur in
MichoacAin. Four or five kinds of cats (genus _Felis_), species of the
genera _Potos_, _Lutra_, _Tayra_, _Grison_, and several other kinds of
mammals of which we now lack positive record, also probably occur
there; the list of kinds, we expect, will number more than one hundred
species and subspecies when more intensive collecting has been done in
the state. In all, we have positive record of 85 kinds of native, wild
mammals of which specimens have been examined or recorded from
MichoacAin. Distances and elevations here are recorded either in the
metric system or in the English system, according to the system used
on the labels of the specimens concerned. Unless otherwise indicated,
catalogue numbers of more than 100,000 are of specimens in the
University of California Museum of Vertebrate ZoAślogy and numbers of
less than 100,000 are of the Chicago Natural History Museum.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. Map of the state of MichoacAin showing
place names mentioned in the text.]