Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 59. (Budapest 1967)

Szunyoghy, J.: The scientific results of Hungarian zoological expeditions to Tanganyika 10. The big game material and their more important measurement data of the first and the second expeditions

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Tomus 59. PARS ZOOLOGICA 1967. The Scientific Results of Hungarian Zoological Expeditions to Tanganyika 10. The Big Game Material and Their More Important Measurement Data of the First and Second Expeditions By J. SZTJNYOGHY, Budapest In East and South Europe it was the Hungarian Natural History Museum whict had, prior to 1956, the biggest Exhibition of the African flora and fauna. This exhibition was completely consumed by fire in 1956. For the replacement of the big game material annihilated at that time, two Hungarian hunting and zoological expeditions had been sponsored by the state to Eash Africa. The first was in 1960, the second in 1964, both in the first quarter of the year. These expeditions succeeded in collecting the complete skins, skulls, the bones of the extremities of one side, together with the shoulder and pelvic girdles, of the animals requested by the Museum. Our institution had thus acquired not only admirable exhibition items but also a most valuable comparative osteological material, second to none of that of most European museums. Most of the bagged animals had also been immediately measured. The material of the first expedition had been measured by the present author, that of the second one by Zs. SZÉCHENYI, in accordance with the previously standardized prescriptions. Twenty different measurements were taken from every animal, with the aim of exactly characterising the body of the respective animal on the one hand, and to facilitate later taxidermie work on the other. In addition to this, we intended to contribute by the reading of the measurements to a better knowledge of the corporeal features, hitherto hardly studied, of East African big game. Since the mammological material of our expeditions was rather diverse, the interest, usability, and value of the data published hereunder will also be greater than if they were to refer to merely some few species. The collecting area of the first expedition in Tanganyika was as follows: the Ardai steppe (abbreviated in the list of specimens collected as = A) ; Laiverero ( = L) ; Monduli (=M); Nata (=N); Oldeani ( = 0); Shambaraya (=S). The collected material consisted of 86 specimens of 26 species. The list of the collected species, with indications of the number of exemplars, ocality, and sex, is as follows: Strepsiceros strepsiceros frornmi MATSCHTE, 2 exemplars (L 1 çf, 1 $ ) ; Oryx beisa annectens HOLLISTER, 3 (L 1 çf, 1 $, M 1 çf); Alcelaphus buselaphus cokii GÜNTHER, 4 (L 3 çf

, 1 $); Damaliscus corrigum jimela MATSCHTE, 4 (N 2 çf, 2 $); Connochaetes