Latest Global Mammal Checklist now online

Hello

I’ve just uploaded the latest iteration of my global mammal checklist. This incorporates changes made by the IUCN’s Redlist since I updated this last in September 2017. I have also included a few other changes that the IUCN has yet to adopt.

There are relatively few changes since the last time and all changes are listed in the worksheet “Changes over Time”. Scroll to the bottom and look under the heading “Changes Since Vs 5 (at May 2018)” to see what is new.

Just a reminder that the list is very largely based on the IUCN’s Red List, so its more lumpy than splitty. Species I have included that are additional to those listed by the IUCN are highlighted in yellow on the “All Mammals” worksheet. And some of the background to those divergences is included on the sheet “Divergences from IUCN list”. Yes, yes, I know… I am totally OCD. But this stuff is life and death!

IUCN Changes in brief

The IUCN have added a handful of (quite obscure) rats and shrews and a couple of (also quite obscure) bats.

IUCN added a new Orangutan, the Tapanuli Orangutan, which I don’t remember hearing about.

The Bornean Gibbon (Hylobates muelleri) is now three species (following the taxonomy in the latest Borneo field guide): H. abbotti, H. muelleri and H. funereus. The latter is the species in Sabah that those who have been to Borneo have most likely seen.

IUCN added three new Treeshrews. The Common Treeshrew (Tupaia glis) has been split: Sumatran Treeshrew (T. ferruginea) and Large Javan Treeshrew (T. hypochrysa) are now new species. If you have been to Way Kambas in Sumatra I think you will have seen the Sumatran Tree Shrew.  From what I can tell the (new) Large Javan Treeshrew is not the species that is around Gunung Gede in Java (which is T. javanica).

Meanwhile the Long-footed Treeshrew (T. longipes) has had Southern Long-footed Treeshrew  (T. salatana) split off.

IUCN also removed Eastern Bentwinged Bat (Minioterus fulignosus) which is now lumped with M. schriebersii.

Other Changes

I also made a few changes ahead of the IUCN (hopefully the Red List will follow…). I’ve added Black Mongoose (Galerella nigrata), Andean Rabbit (Sylvilagus andinus), Gabb’s Cottontail (Sylvilagus gabbi) and Rio Grande Ground Squirrel (Ictidomys parvidens) as new species. I stumbled on these changes largely because they are animals I have seen and I was doing a bit of list-inflating research.

I also incorporated the changes from the new cat taxonomy produced by the IUCN’s cat specialist group  that has already been discussed on this blog. The major changes from the previous checklist are recognising African Wildcats (Felis lybica) as separate to European Wildcats (F. sylvestris), and splitting Leopard Cats into mainland and sunda forms.

Finally, with thanks to Manuel Ruedi for his help, I have included several new Bamboo and Myotis bats that he alerted me too and removed two other Myotis species.

More details on all of these changes are in the worksheets.

Taxonomy seems as much art as science so I know not everyone will agree with all this … but let me know what you think anyway!

cheers

Jon