P. Grubb, T.S. Jones, A.G. Davies, E. Edberg, E.D. Starin & J.E. Hill The Tendrine Press, 1998 PUBLISHER'S NOTE The mammal literature for West Africa tends to be either well out of date (e.g. Bigourdan & Prunier, 1937; Dekeyser, 1955) or scattered widely in various scientific periodicals. None of the three countries dealt with in this book has ever had a comprehensive mammal list. In his review of the primary literature of recent mammals Hickman (1981) was able to cite only Cansdale's (1948) provisional list and Booth's (1956) two page supplement for Ghana; a five page article in a popular magazine (Hayman, 1955) for Sierra Leone; and nothing at all for The Gambia. Mammals of Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia is intended to remedy this by providing an up to date account of the wild mammals, including a review of each country in relation to its mammal fauna, zoogeography of West African mammals, and a systematic list of the known species. Importantly, erroneous past records are corrected. Where appropriate, the species distribution maps indicate the historical as well as the present range. A word of explanation about the scope of the work may be appropriate. There would be a good case for including all of sub-Saharan Africa west of Nigeria (which has been covered by Happold, 1987), but this was considered impracticable so it is limited to the three Anglophone countries. The rationale for combining them within one volume is that, apart from many of the species occurring throughout the area covered, there is a limited internal demand for such a book, while externally the potential readership would be about the same for each. So it was decided to offer one book instead of three. Certain sections appear under individual author's names. While the rest of the book is necessarily a joint effort, the authors have naturally contributed mainly in accordance with their personal experience-P. Grubb for Ghana; T.S. Jones and A.G. Davies for Sierra Leone; E. Edberg and E.D. Starin for The Gambia; and J.E. Hill for the nomenclature and systematics of the Chiroptera. It is not easy to produce a multi-authored work of this sort and I am grateful to all the authors for their patience and co-operation during its preparation. W.F.H. Ansell TABLE OF CONTENTS PUBLISHER'S NOTE vi OBITUARY vi INTRODUCTION 1 West Africa, General Sources of records Mapping of species Errors in early game schedules Systematics Text for each species Rejected species and possible further additions Acknowledgements GHANA by P. Grubb 7 SIERRA LEONE by T.S. Jones 27 THE GAMBIA by E.D. Starin 46 ZOOGEOGRAPHY by P. Grubb 51 SYSTEMATIC LIST 60 APPENDIX I The supposed occurrence of Cercopithecus albogularis in Ghana by P. Grubb 213 APPENDIX II The Sierra Leone Monkey drives by T.S. Jones 214 GAZETTEER, GHANA 220 GAZETTEER, SIERRA LEONE 27 GAZETTEER, THE GAMBIA 232 REFERENCES 234 INDEX OF ORDERS AND FAMILIES 254 INDEX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES 255 INDEX OF ENGLISH NAMES 263 SUPPLEMENT: SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MAPS INTRODUCTION WEST AFRICA (GENERAL) West Africa in the context of this book indicates the area south of the Sahara Desert from Nigeria and Cameroon to Senegal (Map 1). This corresponds with Happold (1987) but is rather less extensive than designated by Rosevear (1965: viii and end paper map), who included southern Tchad, a small part of western Sudan, ard the northern part of the Central African Republic. Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia are wholly south of the Sahel zone ard mostly south of the Sudan zone (Map 2). The Guinea Savanna covers much of Ghana, a limited part of northern Sierra Leone, and most of The Gambia. The southwestern part of Ghana, and originally much of Sierra Leone, fall within the lowland forest zone. According to Church (1959: 74) "It is generally agreed that forest and woodland are the only natural climaxes as far as very roughly 15° N." The main "natural" vegetation zones are shown on Map 2, which is based on Rosevear (1953) and Keay (1959); and the mean annual rainfall and mean annual temperature from Ghana westwards are shown on maps 3 and 4 respectively. However, much of the original vegetation has been greatly modified by human activity, particularly within the present century, and Church (1959: 59) pointed out that: "In West Africa man has been a ruthless modifier or destroyer of the natural vegetation and fauna." The modified vegetation of the present day, particularly in relation to the mammalian fauna, is considered further under the account for each country and in the chapter on zoogeography. The mammals of West Africa have never commanded anything like the general interest of those in eastern and southern Africa, nor have there been as many studies of their biology, though there has been a considerable amount of recent field work on the Primates. Historically the area attracted few big game hunters, other than resident officials like W.B. Stanley and C. Hodgson, as it could not offer the array of comparatively easily obtained trophy specimens available elsewhere in Africa. Neither has the development of wild life tourism in the last few decades extended to West Africa to any significant extent, with the exception of birdwatching in The Gambia (Shepherd, 1987). Nevertheless the mammal fauna is both interesting and varied, with a considerable number of endemic species, and deserves both conservation and further study. WHERE TO ORDER: The Trendrine Press St. Ives, Cornwall, U.K. TR263BW Phone:01736796926 *order requests should be accompanied by check, Postal Order (U.K.), Sterling bank draft, international money order, or Eurocheque. ISBN: 0951256246 (hardcover) Price: 55.00 E in the U.K. Overseas Price: 57.00 E Posted Date: 6/16/2003
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