Analysing databases of Southern African material at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin (MfN Berlin)

Abstract

The paper will provide an overview on historical parts of the mammal and bird collection at the MfN Berlin. Collection history, data quality, taxonomic composition and methods to overcome constraints produced by missing data in these collections will be addressed. The investigation reveals that the specimen flow into the MfN Berlin was composed of a confusing mixture of collecting, exchange and trading activities. The motivations for collecting and keeping of the material were heterogeneous and sometimes far from being scjentific. As a consequence, the mobilization of data for biodiversity- and global change issues faces serious short comings in the data quality, which means data-incompleteness, misnaming and imprecise labeling. The fact that the historical collection of the mammals was housed in different collections by separating individual specimens makes it today difficult to find out the parts that belong together (i.e. skins and skeletons). Therefore identification of parts is necessary. It turned out that restoring or completion of the data lack is feasible to a large degree and that the most important source of information to close the gaps are historical documents concerning the activities of collectors and donors. Most of the material from Southern Africa of the mammal collection has been collected in German colonial times, whereas the bird collection shows two peaks of major input, i.e. within German colonial times and at the beginning of the forties of the twentieth century. Research on the change of biodiversity in Southern Africa should be focused on the comparison of these times with more recent information.