American mammalogist
Don Ellis Wilson
(born April 30, 1944, in
Davis, Oklahoma
) is an American zoologist. His main research field is
mammalogy
, especially the group of
bats
which he studied in 65 countries around the world.
Career
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Wilson spent his childhood and youth in Nebraska, Texas, Oregon and Washington. After finishing high school in
Bisbee, Arizona
in 1961 he graduated to
Bachelor of Science
from the
University of Arizona
in 1965. Still an under-graduate in 1964, he made his first expedition to the tropics, to which he travelled many times in the subsequent decades to study the mammalian fauna.
After working for the
National Park Service
in a
fire lookout tower
in the
Grand Canyon National Park
for one summer, he attended the
graduate school
of the
University of New Mexico
, where he graduated respectively in the discipline biology to
Master of Science
in 1967 and promoted to
Ph.D.
in 1970.
During this period he spent the summer months working as a naturalist for the
U.S. Forest Service
in the
Sandia Mountains
. His master thesis dealt with the relationships of five
Peromyscus
species in the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico, his
dissertation
with the small tropical insectivorous bat
Myotis nigricans
.
From 1986 to 1988, Wilson was president
[1]
of the
American Society of Mammalogists
. In 1992, he was president of the
Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation
. In addition, he was editor of the
Journal of Mammalogy
for five years, and editor of the publications
Mammalian Species
and
Special Publications
for three years. He also worked in various editorial boards. He is on the board of the organizations
Bat Conservation International
, the
Biodiversity Foundation for Africa
,
Integrated Conservation Research
and in the
Lubee Bat Conservancy
.
Publications
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Wilson published more than 270 scientific publications, including the book
Mammals of New Mexico
and three monographs on bats. In 1997, the book
Bats in Question ? The Smithsonian Answer Book
was published. In 2005, he was co-editor (along with
DeeAnn M. Reeder
) of the reference work
Mammal Species of the World
.
[2]
Since 2009, he is co-editor (with
Russell Mittermeier
) of the book series
Handbook of the Mammals of the World
, from the Spanish publishing house
Lynx Edicions
. In addition, he published the books
Animal
,
Human
,
Smithsonian Handbook of Mammals
and
Mammal
for the publisher
Dorling Kindersley
. He also authored a field guide to the North American mammal fauna as well as the work
Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals
.
Honors
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Wilson won several awards, including the Smithsonian Institution Awards for outstanding contributions in the field of tropical biology, the Outstanding Publication Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Gerrit S. Miller
Award from the North American Symposium on Bat Research, and the
Hartley H. T. Jackson
Award of the American Society of Mammalogists. In addition he received recognition of the
Asociacion Mexicana de Mastozoologia
for his outstanding scientific achievement and he received an honorary membership of the American Society of Mammalogists.
A species of snake,
Myriopholis wilsoni
, is named in honor of Don E. Wilson.
[3]
Personal life
[
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Wilson lives with his wife, whom he married in 1962 in
Gainesville, Virginia
. The couple has two daughters (who work as tutors) and four granddaughters.
References
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Further reading
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]
- Perry, Matthew C. (ed.):
The Washington Biologists' Field Club: Its Members and its history (1900?2006)
. Washington Biologists' Field Club, Washington, DC 2007,
ISBN
978-0-615-16259-1
, pp. 290?291.
External links
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]
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