Records of Ethiopian and Eritrean mammals in Italian literature and museums, with some taxonomic notes

Abstract

Published and unpublished data on Ethiopian and Eritrean mammals, mainly deriving from Italian sources, including some natural history museums, in the present contribution are intended as an amendment to the landmark Catalogue of Ethiopian and Eritrean mammals produced by Derek Yalden and collaborators between 1974 and 1996. Additionally, a few taxonomic notes including the proposal of two new subspecific names are included. The paper highlights the importance of historical data for a number of scientific applications, such as taxonomy, conservation biology, and restoration ecology. Two 'cryptozoological' records are also included.

Out of Europe: Investigating Hystrix cristata (Rodentia: Hystricidae) skull morphometric geographic variability in Africa

“…Mori et al, 2019) but to a general lack of knowledge especially in the Horn of Africa (cfr. Gippoliti, 2020). However, uncertainty remains regarding many areas of the Hystrix cristata African range, in particular in the Central Africa region, as it can be seen in the maps of Fig.…”

“…in Ethiopia (Afework Bekele & Yalden, 2013), along a wide geographic range encompassing several well-known centers of endemism such as the Somali Desert or the Ethiopian Dome (Moodly & Bruford, 2007). It is not clear if this wide distribution range may reflect its wellknown ecological adaptability, and thus ability to overcome important biogeographical barriers such as the Nile Basin, the Ethiopian Highlands or the Sahara Desert -including the palaeo Chad Basin (Douady et al, 2003;Lihoreau et al, 2006), or alternatively if a more complex biogeographical history is masked by an oversimplified taxonomy, as is suspected with the African golden wolf, here referred to as the Canis anthus complex (Gippoliti, 2020), a taxon occurring over the same wide geographic range of Hystrix cristata.…”

Home range, habitat use, and activity patterns of African wolves (Canis lupaster) in the Ethiopian highlands

“…In-depth research on the AW has been neglected in part because it was long considered a subspecies of the widely distributed and well-studied Eurasian golden jackal (Canis aureus; Rueness et al, 2011;Gopalakrishnan et al, 2018), and the behavioural ecology of the African wolf and the Eurasian golden jackal have not been reviewed independently of each other (Viranta et al, 2017). The taxonomy of the African wolf is also debated (Gippoliti, 2020), but here we follow Viranta et al (2017) and Alvares et al (2019) and regard it as Canis lupaster Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832.…”