Early Faunal Surveys by the MVZ

Since the Museum’s founding in 1908, we have had a rich history of field surveys to document the distribution and diversity of terrestrial vertebrates in western North America. These early expeditions included transects across the major ecological life zones of California and led to significant publications such as Animal Life in the Yosemite (Grinnell and Storer 1924) and Vertebrate Natural History of a Section of Northern California through the Lassen Peak Region (Grinnell, Dixon and Linsdale 1931).

The collections of specimens, field notes, photographs, maps, paintings, and publications that resulted from the early MVZ surveys form the foundation for modern studies focused on recording changes in habitats and associated vertebrate fauna over space and time. For example, the Grinnell Resurvey Project, which aims to revisit over 200 of the 700 sites visited by early MVZ field workers, could not be done without the extensive material left as a legacy for future study.

 

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Major monographs and books from the early 20th Century MVZ field surveys, including photographs, maps, and paintings by Allan Brooks, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and others.

Author(s)	Year	Title	Publisher
Grinnell	1908	The biota of the San Bernadino Mountains	University of California Publications in Zoology
Grinnell	1913	Distributional list of the mammals of California	University of California Publications in Zoology
Taylor	1914	Field notes of amphibians, reptiles, and birds of northern Humboldt Co., Nevada	University of California Publications in Zoology
Grinnell	1914	An account of the mammals and birds of the Lower Colorado Valley	University of California Publications in Zoology
Grinnell	1915	A distributional list of the birds of California	Cooper Ornithological Club
Grinnell, Bryant, & Storer	1918	The game birds of California	University of California Press
Grinnell	1918	Natural history of the ground squirrels of California	The Monthly Bulletin, California State Commission of Horticulture
Grinnell & Storer	1924	Animal life in the Yosemite (available online and at the Internet Archive)	University of California Press
Grinnell & Wythe	1927	Directory to the bird-life of the San Francisco Bay Region	Cooper Ornithological Club
Grinnell	1928	A distributional summation of the ornithology of Lower California	University of California Publications in Zoology
Grinnell, Dixon, & Linsdale	1930	Vertebrate natural history of a section of northern California through the Lassen Peak Region	University of California Press
Grinnell	1932	Life zones of Yosemite	Contributions from the MVZ
Grinnell	1932	Mammals of Yosemite	Contributions from the MVZ
Grinnell	1932	Birds of the Berkeley campus	Contributions from the MVZ
Grinnell & Linsdale	1936	Vertebrate animals of Point Lobos Reserve, 1934-35	Carnegie Institute of Washington
Grinnell, Dixon, & Linsdale	1937	Fur-bearing mammals of California	University of California Press
Linsdale	1938	Environmental responses of vertebrates in the Great Basin	American Midland Naturalist
Grinnell & Miller	1944	The distribution of the birds of California	Cooper Ornithological Club
Hall	1946	Mammals of Nevada	University of California Press
Johnson, Bryant, & Miller	1948	Vertebrate animals of the Providence Mountains area of California	University of California Publications in Zoology
Leopold	1959	Wildlife of Mexico	University of California Press
Miller & Stebbins	1964	The lives of desert animals in Joshua Tree National Monument	University of California Press