| Clinton Hart Merriam | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 5, 1855 New York City |
| Died | March 19, 1942 (aged 86) Berkeley, California |
| Nationality | USA |
| Fields | Zoology Ornithology Ethnography |
| Institutions | United States Department of Agriculture National Geographic Society |
| Known for | Life zone concept |
Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist and ethnographer.
Known as "Hart" to his friends, Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam was born in New York City in 1855. His father, Clinton Levi Merriam, was a U.S. congressman. He studied biology and anatomy at Yale University and went on to obtain an M.D. from the School of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1879 and taught at Harvard University for a period of time. His sister Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey was a pioneering ornithologist who introduced the idea of popular field guides for bird identification. Florence Merriam married Vernon Bailey a field naturalist a long-time collecting partner of C. Hart Merriam's. He died in Berkeley, California in 1942. His grandson Lee Merriam Talbot (born 1930) was a notable geographer and ecologist. He was among the IUCN team who rediscovered the Persian Fallow Deer in 1957 and he was secretary general of the IUCN from 1980 to 1983.
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In 1886, he became the first chief of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy of the United States Department of Agriculture, predecessor to the National Wildlife Research Center and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. He was one of the original founders of the National Geographic Society in 1888. He developed the concept of "life zones" to classify biomes found in North America along an altitudinal sequence corresponding to the zonal latitudinal sequence from Equator to Pole. In mammalogy, he is known as an excessive splitter, proposing, for example, tens of different species of North American brown bears in several genera.
In 1899, he helped railroad magnate E. H. Harriman to organize an exploratory voyage along the Alaska coastline.
Some species of animals that bear his name are Merriam's Wild Turkey Meliagris gallopavo meriami, the now extinct Merriam's Elk Cervus elaphus merriami, and Merriam's Chipmunk Tamias merriami. Much of his detail-oriented taxonomy continues to be influential within mammalogical and ornithological circles.
Later in life, funded by the Harriman family, Merriam's focus shifted to studying and assisting the Native American tribes in the western United States. His contributions on the myths of central California and on ethnogeography were particularly noteworthy.