An Annotated Check List of the Mammals
of Michoacán, México

An Annotated Check List of the Mammals
of Michoacán, México

By

E. RAYMOND HALL and BERNARDO VILLA R.

INTRODUCTION

When General Lázaro Cardenas was President of the Republic of México, 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 Michoacán, 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 coöperate 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 Zoölogy, most of March—March 3 to March 29, 1943—was spent in the state of Michoacán.

Bernardo Villa R. of the Instituto de Biología de la Universidad de México was a member of the party from March 23 to 27. Previously, March 4 to 22, Roberto Alcántar from the Universidad de Michoacán, 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, Pátzcuaro. 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 Revolución. The shore of Lake Pátzcuaro, 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 Tacámbaro, making our headquarters in the Europa Hotel, in the town. The steep main street of Tacámbaro 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 Zoölogy 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 México at Laredo, the beginning of the new volcano, Paricutín, was announced in the daily press. Our collecting of mammals in Michoacán 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 Zoölogy 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 Michoacán 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 Tancítaro 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 Zoölogy of the University of Michigan, lent to us for examination five specimens of bats, of as many species, which they had taken in Michoacán. Drs. Remington Kellogg and Henry W. Setzer have provided us with data on specimens of deer and peccary from Michoacán which are in the United States National Museum. Specimens in the Institute of Biology of the University of México have been used. Financial provision by the Kansas University Endowment Association has enabled us to obtain specimens needed for comparison from other parts of México.

In addition to the materials mentioned above we have used published references to mammals of Michoacán and have prepared the following lists of kinds of mammals positively known to us to occur in the Mexican state of Michoacán. It is noteworthy that specimens recorded in the literature from Acámbaro, Michoacán, no longer are to be ascribed to Michoacán, since a relocation of the boundary between the states of Michoacán and Guanajuato, places Acámbaro 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 Michoacán and otherwise add to our knowledge of them.

Several kinds of bats, of which we lack records, certainly occur in Michoacán. 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