The zoological tasks of the royal botanical expedition to the New Kingdom of Granada (1783-1816)

Abstract

The literature related to the zoological reports of the Botanical Expedition to the New Kingdom of Granada is very scarce and, unlike the work done in botany, it is indisputable that the same level of knowledge did not occur. Although there are records of the inventory of zoological material sent from the Vice-royalty of Nueva Granada to Madrid and other museums in Europe between 1776 (first zoological consignment made by José Celestino Mutis) and 1816 (repatriation to Spain of the material produced by the Expedition), the final destination of the samples and illustrations is unknown. However, thanks to the manuscripts, letters, diaries, acts, and memoirs published by contemporary authors of Mutis’ work, it is possible to reconstruct the most notable facts of the zoological studies carried out within the framework of the Botanical Expedition (1783-1816). Although Mutis created the Zoology section, the studies carried out were not the result of collective and systematically planned work, or with large allocations of either physical or financial resources. In this essay, we detail the main zoological reports following the chronology of the Expedition based on the works of José Celestino Mutis, Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Fray Diego García, and Francisco José de Caldas, considered as the architects of wildlife knowledge in the Nueva Granada in the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. Some animal species recorded in the inventories of the time are also disclosed. Undoubtedly, important work was accomplished, such as the collection, preservation, classification, description, and identification of specimens along with geographical and behavioral annotations of the recognized species.