Galen Rathbun
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Galen B. Rathbun (1948-) is a biologist, noted as the co-discover of a new species of elephant shrew.
In 1964, Rathbun received an Associate of Arts degree in zoology from College of San Mateo, in San Mateo, California. He received his B. A. degree from Humboldt State University (California) in 1968. After receiving his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Nairobi in Kenya in 1976, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. His research interests include the behavioral ecology of vertebrates, conservation biology of declining species, and the application of innovative field techniques. Most of his career was as a federal research biologist studying Florida manatees and California sea otters. Rathbun is currently a Research Associate and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Ornithology & Mammalogy of the California Academy of Sciences, and is a Scientist Emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey. His recent research includes understanding the basic life history of California red-legged frogs and Pacific pond turtles, the impacts of cattle grazing on a community of small mammals in the San Joaquin Valley, and the evolution of monogamy in elephant-shrews (sengis) and dassie rats in Namibia (southwestern Africa). As the founding Chair of the Afrotheria Specialist Group of the IUCN - The World Conservation Union, Galen remains active in conservation biology. He is the author of over 100 technical publications.
From 1967-70 he taught in Kenya with the Peace Corps.
Rathbun and Francesco Rovero of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Trento, Italy are set to publish their findings regarding a new specie of mammal in the February issue of the British Journal of Zoology.[1]
