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Mastozoología neotropical

Print version ISSN 0327-9383On-line version ISSN 1666-0536

Abstract

TARIFA, Teresa. Mammalogy in Bolivia: A history of Bolivian pioneers and foreign fathers. Mastozool. neotrop. [online]. 2008, vol.15, n.2, pp.223-239. ISSN 0327-9383.

This paper was presented as a keynote address during the "Primer Congreso Nacional de Mastozoología" in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 2005. Using history and/or chronology, I relate the development of mammalogy in Bolivia between 1980 and mid-2005, and I evaluate its future prospects. I briefly treat three central themes: the status of our knowledge, efforts in conservation at a national level, and the development and role of Bolivian researchers and their institutions. The rich Bolivian mammal fauna, studied initially mostly by foreigners, is now studied principally by Bolivian mammalogists working for Bolivian public and private institutions and international non-governmental agencies resident in the country. Bolivian scientific collections (e.g., Colección Boliviana de Fauna), in spite of Boliholding only 17% of the Bolivian mammal specimens deposited in all the museums in the world, currently perform an important role in the generation of knowledge about Bolivian mammals. Publications on Bolivian mammals have increased notably; between 1970 and 1989, there were 92 citations in Zoological Record, while between 1990 and mid-2004, there were 226 citations. The creation in 2005 of the Asociación Boliviana de Investigadores en Mamíferos (ABIMA) has facilitated a greater interchange of information and cooperation between Bolivian investigators, permitting even greater advances in Bolivian mammalogy. Although challenges remain to be faced, Bolivian mammalogy is advancing rapidly and achieving a quality of research equal to the standards of the continent and the world.

Keywords : Bolivia; History; Mammalogy.

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