Click on an image to view a larger or high-resolution version
Conservation: One Bird Song at a Time
Published: Tuesday, 26 Mar 2013
When Pamela Rasmussen first entered into her career in ornithology, she wanted a job that would not only let her pursue her fascination with the study of birds, but also a job that would enable her to study birds in a manner that ornithologists from bygone days had done. Specifically, she wanted a job that would enable her to travel widely, observe and collect birds, and work with specimens in museums.
Rasmussen’s career in ornithology has enabled her to fulfill all of these goals, taking her to many corners of the world through leading MSU’s study abroad programs in Uganda, Madagascar, Antarctica, Malaysia and Costa Rica, as well as making other forays to tropical rainforests and other remote avian habitats. Observing, sound-recording, and sometimes collecting birds of diverse species, and working with bird specimens in an array of museums that includes the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., Britain’s Natural History Museum at Tring (near London), and the Michigan State University Museum, Rasmussen currently serves as an Assistant Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology, in addition to her job as an Assistant Professor of Zoology in MSU’s College of Natural Science.
But Rasmussen’s work in ornithology isn’t so much about where her career has taken her as it is about the broad impact she has had on the field.
Highlights of Rasmussen's Career Include:
-
Uncovering one of the biggest bird scandals in history and, in the process, exposing one of the most renowned ornithologists as a fraud;
-
Discovering and describing six new bird species, plus two new owl species;
-
Serving as the author in the two-volume ornithological handbook, “Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide,” viewed by many as one of the most complete and detailed bird books ever published (second edition was published in August 2012);
-
Working with a team to complete one of the most diverse and best-documented global online databases of bird sounds on the web, www.avocet.zoology.msu.edu.
“I’ve always been interested in birds, personally, but I also think some aspects of my work help to foster conservation,” Rasmussen said. “There are a lot of birders, and the numbers are growing all the time. And, every one of them, I can tell you, is concerned with the loss of the birds’ habitats worldwide.”
A meticulous researcher, Rasmussen rattled the world of ornithology while conducting research for her book. Her research revealed subtle but significant inconsistencies in the manner of preservation of many birds that were documented as important records by respected ornithologist, Richard Meinertzhagen.
In general, collectors of bird specimens have characteristic styles of preserving their bird specimens. But Rasmussen and her colleagues discovered that specimens Meinertzhagen claimed as his own had multiple preservation styles, some of which were similar to other well-known collectors of bird specimens.
Further research by Rasmussen and colleagues revealed that documentation of the bird specimens, written by Meinertzhagen, was fraudulent. Rasmussen’s experience in and knowledge of museums helped the researchers trace how Meinertzhagen managed to pull off his capers, as they showed that many of the bird specimens that Meinertzhagen claimed as his own discoveries and captures were actually stolen from various museums and bear fraudulent data.
Thus, as the result of Rasmussen’s research, the consensus among ornithologists today is that Meinertzhagen, who died in 1967, stole many bird specimens from museums and then relabeled the specimens with fraudulent documentation regarding where the birds were discovered, when they were obtained, and who discovered them in the wild.
Rasmussen’s research abilities, her keen eyes, and detailed study of bird vocalizations often enable her to detect what other ornithologists miss, and have led to an astounding number of new species discoveries. Even though it’s rare to find a single new species of bird, Rasmussen has detected six new Asian bird species that are now formally scientifically described and rediscovered an owl species that had not been seen since 1884.
The bulk of Rasmussen’s research relies on study skins— the preserved bodies of birds catalogued and stored in museums. The skins are irreplaceable historic and scientific artifacts, allowing scientists hands-on study. In addition, illustrators are able to prepare accurate images using the skins.
Illustrations, painted by some of the top bird artists in the world, are a significant component of “Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide.” With over 3,400 illustrations, the first edition of the two-volume book, which has been described as the definitive guide to the birds of India and the surrounding countries, was published in 2005.
“What earned Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide its prestige was much more than the illustrations, however; it was also the sheer breadth of the book’s geographical and species coverage compared to any other book ever published. In total, 1,508 species from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Chagos Archipelago and Afghanistan were covered,” said Siddharth Chandra, director of the Asian Studies Center. The Asian Studies Center is proud to have supported Rasmussen’s work over the years. Other notable aspects contributing to the book’s status include:
-
Its approach, which helped identify birds regarded asthe same species as distinctive and separate species.
-
It is the only field guide for South Asia to utilize sonograms and detailed quantitative descriptions to document the vocalizations of the region’s birds.
-
The painstaking manner in which precise details for taxonomic classifications were made, including the measurement of tens of thousands of birds.
-
A specimen database that resulted in the region's first hypothetical and rejected species list.
The second edition of Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide was published in August 2012 and is touted by its publishers, the Smithsonian Institution, Lynx Edicions and MSU, as more user-friendly than ever, including vocalization descriptions for almost every bird species in Volume 1, the portable field guide; containing a lot of new information and many revised taxonomic treatments; remaining thorough in regard to complete data about identification, variation, status and distribution, voice and habits for each bird species.
Rasmussen says, “The new edition of the book is quite heavily revised, particularly in terms of updating systematic treatments of birds, mainly because a great many molecular analyses have appeared since the book was first published in 2005. So, I’ve revised it to reflect our new understanding of bird relationships, and there are a number of other updates. There’s also been some new species that have come out: several birds newly recorded in the region, as well as two new bird species from India that have just recently been discovered. So, I think with all the updates, the book will be even better than it was before.”
With her current major project, Project AVoCet (Avian Vocalizations Center), Rasmussen is helping bring the field of ornithology into the Cyber Age. With IT support by Patrick Bills, she created a global online database of bird sounds. “Any sound made by a bird can be archived in this database,” Rasmussen said. “Most of the people who come to the website are not professional ornithologists or conservationists, they are birdwatchers that want to get recordings of a particular species of birds, so they’ll know what they’re listening for when they go into the field.” And yet, the database is designed to be as scientifically valuable as possible, which is why documentation of ecological, behavioral, and identification data is emphasized. As an example of its scientific value, most of the sound recordings of the two new species being formally described in August 2012 and the species they’re related to are archived only on AVoCet.
Rasmussen’s aim in creating the online database, in addition to bringing the world of ornithology into the homes of millions in the general public who might not otherwise be exposed to it, was to provide well-documented, downloadable bird sounds to aid environmental and ornithological research, conservation, education, and the identification and appreciation of birds and their habitats. AVoCet currently has recordings of almost 4,000 bird species and well over 13,000 total bird call recordings from all over the world, and many more are soon to be added.
Browse bird call recordings and learn more about conservation, education, and birds and their habitats at the Avian Vocalization Center website at www.avocet.zoology.msu.edu.
Watch an interview with Pamela at www.isp.edu/multimedia
