Mammals of the Grand Mesa, ColoradoAnderson, Sydney
Science
Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado
Anderson, Sydney
Mammals -- Colorado
Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Diane Monico, and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Volume 9, No. 16, pp. 405-414, 1 fig.
May 20, 1959
Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado
BY
SYDNEY ANDERSON
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE
1959
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch,
Robert W. Wilson
Volume 9, No. 16, pp. 405-414, 1 fig.
Published May 20, 1959
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Lawrence, Kansas
PRINTED IN
THE STATE PRINTING PLANT
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1959
27-7472
Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado
BY
SYDNEY ANDERSON
The Grand Mesa of Colorado is a westward extension of the mountains of
central Colorado, standing more than five thousand feet above the
valleys of the Colorado and the Gunnison rivers. To certain montane
mammals the mesa is a peninsula of cool, moist, forest surrounded by
inhospitable, hot, dry, barren lowland.
Few mammals previously have been preserved or reported from the Grand
Mesa. Of the species here reported, Warren (1942, The Mammals of
Colorado, Univ. Oklahoma Press) mentioned only four from the counties
in which the Grand Mesa is located. Twenty-two species are here
recorded from the Grand Mesa, and two localities below the rim of the
Mesa on the north slope, on the basis of specimens preserved, and five
additional species on the basis of observations. Many of these species
are limited to a montane habitat or find their optimum conditions
there. The known geographic ranges of some subspecies are extended
westward.
Specimens and notes were obtained by members of a field party from the
Museum of Natural History led by Dr. Harrison B. Tordoff. The party,
including also R. Gordon Cliffgard, John M. Legler, Olin L. Webb, and
Glen E. Woolfenden, was in the area from June 17 to July 5, 1954, and
obtained all of the specimens listed excepting those from 28 miles east
of Grand Junction (Sect. 29, T. 11S, R. 95W), Mesa County, that were
obtained from June 13 to July 2, 1956, by Phillip M. Youngman, and
those from Land's End Road that were obtained on May 13 and 14, and on
October 1, 1948, by D. A. Sutton.
Localities designated by numbers in the accounts to follow are listed
in the legend for Figure 1. Localities 1 and 3 lie below the rim of the
Mesa on the north side. Catalogue numbers are of the Museum of Natural
History of the University of Kansas, unless noted otherwise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account