Vernon Orlando Bailey

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Bailey during an expedition in Rabbit Hole Basin, Nevada in 1898
Photograph taken while Bailey was a naturalist with the Bureau of Biological Survey. Bailey was particularly interested in developing more humane animal traps.

Vernon Orlando Bailey (born June 21, 1864 in Manchester , Michigan , † April 20, 1942 in Washington, DC ) was an American naturalist . His research focus was mammal science .

Live and act

Bailey was the fourth child of Hiram and Emily Bailey. His father was a trained bricklayer , but his preference was more for forestry and hunting. When Bailey was six years old, the family moved to the Elk River in Minnesota by horse and cart . Bailey was initially homeschooled. In 1873 the families from the neighboring homesteads built a schoolhouse, which marked the beginning of formal school attendance.

Similar to other previous mammalogues, Bailey collected organisms in his environment. As an autodidact in taxidermy, he prepared museum specimens that he sold to Ontario in Canada and to Halle an der Saale . Several of these samples were purchased from Clinton Hart Merriam .

When Bailey was 19, he was given a position by Merriam as a naturalist in the Office of Economic Ornithology, under the United States Department of Agriculture, renamed the Bureau of Biological Survey in 1905 . In 1887, Bailey went on expeditions to the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains . In 1890 he achieved the rank of chief naturalist. In 1891 he took part in an expedition to Death Valley in Nevada . Until his last trip to Nevada in 1937, Bailey was a collector for the Bureau of Biological Survey and the United States National Museum . In between he studied at the University of Michigan in 1893 and from 1894 to 1895 at George Washington University , where he did not receive any degrees. In December 1899 (according to other sources, 1904) he married the ornithologist Florence Augusta Merriam , sister of Clinton Hart Merriam. In 1933 he retired from the Bureau of Biological Survey. From 1933 to 1935, Bailey was President of the American Society of Mammalogists . He was previously President of the Biological Society of Washington in 1922 . Bailey was also a member of the American Ornithologists' Union , the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the Washington Academy of Sciences, and the Cooper Ornithological Club.

Bailey collected around 13,000 samples for the Bureau of Biological Survey. He published 244 monographs and is best known for his expeditions to Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota and Oregon. Bailey was also into animal traps . He developed and perfected a live trap in which the animals should remain as unharmed as possible. He also developed a stand trap for a variety of birds and mammals, which he perfected from time to time. For both cases, he was recognized by the American Humane Association .

Works (selection)

  • The Prairie Ground Squirrels or Spermophiles of the Mississippi Valley, 1893
  • Biological Survey of Texas: Life Zones, with Characteristic Species of Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Plants. Reptiles, with Notes of Distribution. Mammals, with Notes on Distribution, Habits and Economic Importance, 1904
  • Life Zones and Crop Zones of New Mexico, 1913
  • Revision of the Pocket Gophers of the Genus Thomomys, 1915
  • Wild Animals of Glacier National Park, 1918
  • A Biological Survey of North Dakota, 1926
  • Beaver Habits and Experiments in Beaver Culture, 1927
  • Animal Life of the Carlsbad Caverns, 1928
  • Mammals of New Mexico, 1931
  • Animal Friends of the High Sierra, 1932
  • Cave Life of Kentucky, 1933
  • The Ways of the Beaver People, 1933
  • Dwellers in the Desert, 1934
  • The Mammals and Life Zones of Oregon, 1936

literature

  • David J. Schmidly: Texas Natural History: A Century of Change , 2002. ISBN 978-0-89672-469-3 . Pp. 23-26
  • Keir B. Sterling, George A. Cevasco, Richard A. Harmond: Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists , 1997. pp. 48-50

Web links

Commons : Vernon Orlando Bailey  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schmidly 2002, pp. 23-26
  2. ↑ Sterling et al. 1997, pp. 48-50
  3. ↑ Biography on the Washington Biologists' Field Club website
  4. ↑ TS Palmer: Obituaries The Auk 64 (3) (July - September 1947), pp. 501-506
personal data
SURNAME Bailey, Vernon Orlando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American naturalist and mammalogist
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1942
Place of death Washington, DC