Pam Rasmussen
Pam gave a terrific presentation to members and friends of the Roger Tory Peterson institute on Wednesday October 28, 2009. She told the story of her 10-year project of totally revising the Birds of South Asia: Ripley Guide that became a totally new work. Pam attempted to document all the underling records that constituted earlier checklists of the region and found 88 species previously taken as fact to breed there were not valid. Factors such as misidentification, lumped or split species issues and fraud were uncovered. Pam also documented another 86 species not previously included and added 1 species thought to be extinct. Pam herself rediscoverd Athene blewitti, the Forest Owlet.
While documenting bird specimens in museum collections, Pam uncovered substantial fraud by the late British ornithologist Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen. The Meinertzhagen collection in the British Museum contained 20,000 specimens, some of which the evidence shows were stolen from other collectors and relabeled as his own.
John Rappole, Pam Rasmussen and Bob Sundell
Rasmussen's work, Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide, is published in two volumes, by the Smithsonian and Lynx Edicions. The book, illustrated by John Anderton and other artists, puts a scientific work into a form that amateurs can use in bird-watching. The territory covered is India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Maldives.