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Michael Bogan

Cindy Ramotnik

Research Task: 8327CN8.1.0
Task Manager: Cindy Ramotnik

The USGS manages two significant natural history collections, one in Washington, D.C., and the other in Albuquerque, N.M. The USGS vertebrate collection in Albuquerque is curated by FORT staff and housed through a cooperative partnership with the University of New Mexico Museum of Southwestern Biology. The collection currently comprises more than 25,000 mammals, 3,000 birds, 8,000 amphibians and reptiles, and 5,000 catalogued lots of fishes collected across the Rocky Mountains and Intermountain West. The mammal collection is well-represented by bats and other small mammals from Federal lands in the West. Of particular relevance are the almost 500,000 fish specimens collected from the Upper Colorado River Basin during or shortly after the closing of the major impoundments in the basin. Some of these fishes are now classified as endangered or threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The museum represents an important archival source of historic, recent, and new information. Ongoing task responsibilities include (1) providing long-term care and management of the USGS collection; (2) documenting distribution records of vertebrates from the Southwest by collecting and depositing vouchers in the collection; (3) providing guidance and museum curation expertise to Department of the Interior (DOI) clients and museum colleagues; and (4) providing vertebrate identifications, loans, and other services to DOI clients in particular and museum users in general.

For more information contact Cindy Ramotnik