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["Ryan G. Coleman" <ryan.g.coleman AT gmail.com>]

High bidder to snag right to name newly discovered species

Henry Fountain, New York Times

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/08/MNGUQB7F1L1.DTL

Picture here: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/02/08/


These days, if you're willing to pay the price, you can put your name 
on just about anything -- a basketball arena, a hospital wing, 
perhaps even a subway station.

  How humdrum.

  The Wildlife Conservation Society, on the other hand, is offering 
some true naming-rights excitement. The group will auction off the 
chance to name a new species of monkey.

  The animal, a variety of titi monkey of the genus callicebus, was 
first spotted in 2000 in Madidi National Park in Bolivia. 
Observations made since then convinced the discoverers -- Dr. Robert 
Wallace of the conservation society; Humberto Gomez, a Bolivian 
biologist; and two Conservation Society volunteers, Annika and Adam 
Felton -- that the monkey is a new species. Their paper describing 
the animal has been accepted by taxonomic authorities.

  Ordinarily, the person who discovers a species has the right to name 
it, and species have often been named for people who supported 
research or financed an expedition. In this case, Wallace said in a 
telephone interview from Bolivia, the discoverers decided to seek a 
benefactor after the fact, in an online auction that would raise both 
interest in Madidi park and funds to help manage it.

  "We have no idea how much money this can generate," he said of the 
auction, which begins Feb. 24 at www.charityfolks.com. "We're looking 
for someone who wants to make a lasting contribution to one of the 
most important protected areas of the world."

  Madidi National Park, which covers about 7,300 square miles in 
northwestern Bolivia, is one of the most biologically diverse areas 
on the planet. It is threatened by encroaching agriculture and 
road-building, which lead to human settlement. Proceeds of the 
auction will go to a Bolivian conservation foundation and the 
country's park service to carry out a management plan for the area.

  The monkey is about 15 inches high, weighs about 2 pounds and has 
gold, orange and burgundy colors in its fur. "In general it's quite 
sort of fluffy looking," Wallace said.

  The winner of the auction will have to follow the International Code 
of Zoological Nomenclature, but the code offers plenty of leeway. 
"You can't name it something that's openly offensive," he said. 
"Other than that, you can name it what you want."