| UMMZ Bird Division Farley Mowat Collection |
As a graduate student in the EEB department of the
University of Michigan, I worked as a GSRA
in the Museum of Zoology. While putting
away some loaned Downy Woodpeckers I was distracted by an odd blue specimen label.
The information on the label was no less distracting: "Collection Of Farley Mowat". Yes, author (and
Officer of the Order of Canada)
Farley Mowat! Intrigued, I queried the
UMMZ database to see if it contained any other birds collected by him. In all,
I found 22 bird specimens. The earliest of these date to 1936
from Saskatchewan when Farley was 15 years old.
Searching VertNet (an online database of museum
specimens) I learned that there are a total of 535 specimens (and 2 whale observations)
logged across 5 museums (Canadian Museum of Nature, CMN; Los Angeles County Museum, LACM;
Royal Ontario Museum, ROM; University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, UMMZ;
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, USNM):
| Institution |
Ichthyology |
Mammalogy |
Ornithology |
Total |
| CMN |
0 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
| LACM |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| ROM |
24 |
62 |
419 |
505 |
| UMMZ |
0 |
0 |
22 |
22 |
| USNM |
0 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
Not surprisingly, most specimens are deposited in the ROM. UMMZ does
have the largest collection outside of Canada (so I was lucky to come across it). I
have no idea how those specimens made their way to Michigan.
