Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado

University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 9, No. 16, pp. 405-414, 1 fig. May 20, 1959
BY SYDNEY ANDERSON
University of Kansas Lawrence 1959
University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Robert W. Wilson Volume 9, No. 16, pp. 405-414, 1 fig. Published May 20, 1959 University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED IN THE STATE PRINTING PLANT TOPEKA, KANSAS 1959 27-7472

BY SYDNEY ANDERSON
The Grand Mesa of Colorado is a westward extension of the mountains of central Colorado, standing more than five thousand feet above the valleys of the Colorado and the Gunnison rivers. To certain montane mammals the mesa is a peninsula of cool, moist, forest surrounded by inhospitable, hot, dry, barren lowland.
Few mammals previously have been preserved or reported from the Grand Mesa. Of the species here reported, Warren (1942, The Mammals of Colorado, Univ. Oklahoma Press) mentioned only four from the counties in which the Grand Mesa is located. Twenty-two species are here recorded from the Grand Mesa, and two localities below the rim of the Mesa on the north slope, on the basis of specimens preserved, and five additional species on the basis of observations. Many of these species are limited to a montane habitat or find their optimum conditions there. The known geographic ranges of some subspecies are extended westward.
Specimens and notes were obtained by members of a field party from the Museum of Natural History led by Dr. Harrison B. Tordoff. The party, including also R. Gordon Cliffgard, John M. Legler, Olin L. Webb, and Glen E. Woolfenden, was in the area from June 17 to July 5, 1954, and obtained all of the specimens listed excepting those from 28 miles east of Grand Junction (Sect. 29, T. 11S, R. 95W), Mesa County, that were obtained from June 13 to July 2, 1956, by Phillip M. Youngman, and those from Land's End Road that were obtained on May 13 and 14, and on October 1, 1948, by D. A. Sutton.