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Voucher specimens Wherever reasonable and possible, we documented our observations with voucher specimens. Vouchers have many uses in biology, most fundamentally, to document the species sampled at a given place and time in a manner that can be independently evaluated and confirmed. Vouchers add scientific rigor to biodiversity surveys and permit much deeper insights into tropical diversity than would be possible using superficial catch-and-release methods. We do not prepare vouchers for well-known species or those in danger of extinction. Many of the groups we sampled are poorly known--for these forms, our vouchers constitute the only evidence of the species' existence on Earth. Our specimens become the basis for describing new species and genera. In other cases, information gained directly from vouchers illustrates reproductive periods, litter size, moult, growth, longevity, as well as seasonal and geographic variation. Peru's INRENA (Instituto de Recursos Naturales) monitors and regulates such activity, limiting the collection of vouchers to numbers that are inconsequential ecologically. For example, from the three camps we visited in 2001, we collected and preserved as vouchers 3 to 4 individuals per bird species and 5 to 10 individuals per mammal species. The vouchers from our project are shared equally between the Museo de Historia Natural, University of San Marcos (Lima) and The Field Museum (Chicago). Both collections are international centers of biodiversity studies, where scientists from around the world gain access to unique biodiversity resources. For further information on vouchers: GOODMAN, S. M., and S. M. LANYON. 1994. Scientific collecting. Conservation Biology. 8:314-315. PATTERSON, B. D. In review. On the continuing need for scientific collecting of mammals. Mastozoología Neotropical. REMSEN, J. V., JR. 1995. The importance of continued collecting of bird specimens to ornithology and bird conservation. Bird Conservation International. 5:145-180. STUEBING, R. B. 1998. Faunal collecting in Southeast Asia: fundamental need or blood sport? The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 46:1-10. continue >> |
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