Darrell John Kitchener (born 1943) is a biologist who has been active in mammalian research in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. He is the author of over one hundred papers, published while employed as the senior research biologist at the

Western Australian Museum The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the ''Museum Act 1969''. The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-ope ...

, and described many new species of mammals during his 28 years in that position. Kitchener was born on 9 June 1943 in

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

. He obtained degrees in botany and zoological sciences at the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first pro ...

and completed his Ph.D. at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. His works include contributions to the Australian Museum's ''Complete book of Australian mammals''. 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 ...

for the freetailed bat ''

Mormopterus kitcheneri ''Ozimops kitcheneri'', the south-western free-tailed bat, is a species of molossid bat found in Southwest Australia. A small flying mammal, it forages in forests and woodlands for insects. Taxonomy The description as a new species was publi ...

'' — found in the Southwest Australia ecoregion and first described in 2014 — commemorates Kitchener "for his prolific contribution to elucidating the systematics of Indo-Australian mammals, especially bats".

References

1943 births Australian zoologists People from Victoria (Australia) Living people University of Tasmania alumni University of Western Australia alumni {{zoologist-stub