Authoritative mammal checklist?
What are people’s choices for the authoritative mammal checklist for the world? There are several on the internet including Wilson and Reeder’s and the IUCN. They differ though. I tend to use the latter but is there a gold standard? And is there a gold standard for birding, or do listers just use their favourites?
Jon
6 Comments
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Cathy Pasterczyk
Hi Jon,
I also use Duff and Lawson and agree with the comments above.
For birds I use Clements, mostly because that is what AVISYS uses.
See http://www.avisys.net and http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist
Cathy Pasterczyk
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Jurek
I use Wilson & Reeder 2005, downloadable here:
http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/
It has, among others, localities, very helpful.best
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Morgan Churchill
Like Jurek, I usually use MSW3 as a baseline, although I correct the taxonomy when needed
There really isn’t no “standard” checklist for birds. Clements is the traditional standby but BLI and Howard and Moore are also used by some. IOC is increasingly popular, and is what I use
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Morgan Churchill
For those with more specific interests, the Society of Marine Mammalogy recently has released a checklist for Marine Mammals, which will be updated regularly (probably every 2 years)
http://www.marinemammalscience.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=420&Itemid=340
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Vladimir Dinets
I use my own version for both mammals and birds, but in cases when I know nothing about the taxon in question and don’t have time to look up the primary literature, I usually follow IUCN.