Robert M. Timm

Associate Professor
Tropical Ecology, Systematics, Mammalian Ecology, Host/parasite Relationships
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Phone: (785) 864-4180
Fax: (785) 864-5335

Area of Interest and Research

Working with one of my doctoral students, Robert P. Anderson, and collaborators from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto we conducted an assessment of the species diversity and abundance of mammals in the Iwokrama Rain Forest Reserve in Central Guyana. This is one of the most remote rain forests remaining on the South American continent. This newly formed reserve was found to have an especially rich bat fauna. Numbers of species as well as individuals of predaceous bats, which are indicators of high quality forest and lack of disturbance by humans, were particularly high. The abundance of highly prized game species such as pacas (a large rain forest rodent) is also indicative of little human disturbance. We discovered 11 species new to the Guyana fauna and documented the presence of olingos in the Reserve, a species that had not been found in the country since the turn of the century. The United Nations Global Environmental Fund provided financial support for this work.

Representative Publications

McDonough, M. M., L. K. Ammerman, R. M. Timm, H. H. Genoways, P. A. Larsen, and R. J. Baker. 2008. Speciation within bonneted bats (genus Eumops): The complexity of morphological, mitochondrial, and nuclear datasets in systematics. Journal of Mammalogy 89(5):1306–1315. [pdf: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4464]

Rodríguez-Herrera, B., R. Medellín, and R. M. Timm. 2007. Murciélagos Neotropicales que Acampan en Hojas: Neotropical Tent-roosting Bats. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica, 178 pp.

Timm, R. M. and D. K. McClearn. 2007. The bat fauna of Costa Rica’s Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco and its implications for bat conservation. Pp. 303–352, in The quintessential naturalist: Honoring the life and legacy of Oliver P. Pearson (D. A. Kelt, E. P. Lessa, J. A. Salazar-Bravo, and J. L. Patton, eds.). University of California Publications in Zoology 134:1–981. [pdf: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4461]

Anderson, R. P. and R. M. Timm. 2006. A new species of spiny pocket mouse (Rodentia: Heteromyidae: Heteromys) from northwestern Costa Rica. American Museum Novitates 3509:1–38. [pdf: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4468]

Woodman, N. and R. M. Timm. 2006. Characters and phylogenetic relationships of nectar-feeding bats, with descriptions of new Lonchophylla from western South America (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae: Lonchophyllini). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 119(4):437–476. [pdf: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4474]

Timm, R. M. and H. H. Genoways. 2004. The Florida bonneted bat, Eumops floridanus (Chiroptera: Molossidae): Distribution, morphometrics, systematics, and ecology. Journal of Mammalogy 85(5):852–865. [pdf: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4467]

Stoner, K. E. and R. M. Timm. 2002. Tropical dry forest mammals: Conservation priorities in a changing landscape. InBiodiversity conservation in Costa Rica: Learning the lessons in the seasonal dry forest (G. W. Frankie, A. Mata, and S. B. Vinson, eds.). University of California Press. [pdf: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4490]

Timm, R. M. 2002. Mammal. In The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 14. Chicago, Illinois.

Timm, R. M. and J. H. Brandt. 2001. Pseudonovibos spiralis (Artiodactyla: Bovidae): new information on this enigmatic South-east Asian ox. Journal of Zoology (London) 253(2):157–166. [pdf: http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4491]

Timm, R. M., L. E. Olson, J. H. Brandt, and M. Dioli. 2001. What is Pseudonovibos spiralis ? Pp. 437–440. In Debate on the authenticity of Pseudonovibos spiralis as a new species of wild bovid from Vietnam and Cambodia. Journal of Zoology (London) 255(4):437–444.

Timm, R. M. and R. K. LaVal. 1998. Mammals of Monteverde. In Ecology and conservation of a tropical cloud forest (N. M. Nadkarni and N. T. Wheelwright, eds.). Oxford University Press, New York.

Timm, R. M. and B. L. Clauson. 1990. A roof over their feet: tent making bets of the New World tropics turn leaves into living quarters. Natural History 3/90:54–59.

Timm, R. M. et al. 1989. Mammals of the La Selva–Braulio Carrillo Complex, Costa Rica. North American Fauna 75:1–162.

Web Publications

Timm, R. M., G. Pisani, and N. A. Slade. 2002. Mammals of Kansas (www.ku.edu/~mammals): A book length web site on the natural history, distribution, and systematics of the native mammals of Kansas; includes numerous original black & white and color photographs and a dichotomous key to all species. It also includes a chapter on the physiography of Kansas.

York, H. A. and R. M. Timm. 2008. The mammals of La Selva: Mamíferos de La Selva. http://www.doane.edu/Academics/Departments/Biology/Faculty/22206/