Bruce M. Beehler (born October 11, 1951, in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
) is an
ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
and research associate of the Bird Division of the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...
. Prior to this appointment, Beehler worked for
Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.
CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and communities. The organ ...
, the
Wildlife Conservation Society
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...
,
Counterpart International
Counterpart International is a non-profit organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Since its founding in 1965, Counterpart has established programs and activities in more than 60 countries on six continents.
History
The organization wa ...
, and the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is an American foundation that was chartered by Congress in 1984 to increase the resources available for the conservation of the nation's fish, wildlife, plants and habitats.
Authority
The Natio ...
.
Life
Bruce Beehler graduated from
Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...
and received his master's degree and
PhD studying the behavioral ecology of the
birds-of-paradise
The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of ...
at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
.
He has been an authority on
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
for several decades, having authored or co-authored several major works on the biodiversity this, the largest tropical island, including ''The Birds of Paradise'' (1998), ''The Birds of New Guinea'' (1986, 2015) and the two-volume ''Ecology of Papua'' (2007).
To the general public, Beehler is best known for having co-led a widely published rapid assessment survey on biological diversity in 2005 to the
Foja Mountains
The Foja Mountains (Foja Range, Foya Mountains) ( id, Pegunungan Foja) are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to , and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the inte ...
,
Papua, where he, together with an international team of 11 scientists, the majority from the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences
The Indonesian Institute of Sciences ( id, Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, or LIPI) was the governmental authority for science and research in Indonesia. It consists of 47 research centers in the fields ranging from social to natural scien ...
(LIPI), made a number of scientific discoveries.
The findings on this survey expanded on previous research conducted in the region by Dr.
Jared Diamond
Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books ''The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); ...
in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Beehler and colleagues, however, returned with the first ever photographs of two species of birds, the
bronze parotia
The bronze parotia (''Parotia berlepschi''), also known as the Foja parotia, Berlepsch's parotia or Berlepsch's six-wired bird-of-paradise, is a species of bird-of-paradise, in the family Bird-of-paradise, Paradisaeidae. It resembles and is often ...
(''Parotia berlepschi'') and the
golden-fronted bowerbird
The golden-fronted bowerbird (''Amblyornis flavifrons'') is a medium-sized, approximately 24 cm long, brown bowerbird. The male is rufous brown with an elongated golden crest extending from its golden forehead, dark grey feet and buffish y ...
(''Amblyornis flavifrons''), that previously were known only from a few
specimens. Additionally, a previously unknown species of
honeyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family (biology), family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Epthianura, Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, Manorina, miners and melidectes. They are ...
was discovered, it being scientifically described in 2007 as the
wattled smoky honeyeater
The wattled smoky honeyeater or Foja honeyeater (''Melipotes carolae'') is a species of honeyeater with a sooty-grey plumage and a black bill. The most distinctive feature is arguably the extensive reddish-orange facial skin and pendulous wattl ...
(''Melipotes carolae''). The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
, ''carolae'', commemorates Carol Beehler, the wife of Bruce Beehler. Together with a team from ''
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
'', Beehler returned to the Foja Mountains in 2007, resulting in the first ever filming of several of the species discovered in 2005, as well as encounters with an undescribed giant rat (''
Mallomys
''Mallomys'' is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae. The name of the genus is formed from the Greek μαλλός, ''mallos'', wool, and μῦς, ''mus'', mouse/rat. These very large rats weigh between and are native to highlands in New Guin ...
'' sp.) and a tiny pygmy possum (''
Cercartetus
The genus ''Cercartetus'' is a group of very small possums known as pygmy possums. Four species comprise this genus, which together with the genus '' Burramys'' make up the marsupial family Burramyidae.
It has occasionally been presumed that ' ...
'' sp.).
Works
* ''Thane K Pratt; Bruce McP Beehler "Birds of New Guinea, second edition'', Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2015.
* ''Birdlife of the Adirondack Park'', Glens Falls, NY : Adirondack Mountain Club, 1978.
* ''Upland birds of northeastern New Guinea'', Wau, Papua New Guinea : Wau Ecology Institute, 1978.
* ''A naturalist in New Guinea'', Austin, Texas : University of Texas Press, 1991.
* ''New Guinea : nature and culture of the world's grandest island'', Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2020.
* ''North on the wing : travels with the songbird migration of spring'', Washington, DC : Smithsonian Books, 2018.
* ''Lost worlds : adventures in the tropical rainforest'', New Haven, Conn. ; London : Yale University Press, 2009. ,
* Bruce McP Beehler; Thane K Pratt; Mary Lecroy ''Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics''. Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2016. ,
* Bruce McP Beehler; John Anderton, ''Natural encounters : biking, hiking, and birding through the seasons'', New Haven : Yale University Press, 2019. ,
References
External links
Birder's Paradise (Article about Dr. Beehler)Bruce Beehler, Ph.D.- Conservation International.
BBC StoryCoverage of the Foja Mountains New Guinea Expedition
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beehler
1951 births
Living people
American ornithologists
Williams College alumni