ALFONSO OLALLA AND HIS FAMILY: THE ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF AMAZONIAN PERU R. HAVEN WILEY Department of Biology University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill ([email protected]) BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Number 343, 68 pp., 7 figures, 2 tables Issued December 8, 2010 Copyright E American Museum of Natural History 2010 ISSN 0003-0090 CONTENTS Abstract.......................................................... 3 Introduction . ...................................................... 3 Accusations against ‘‘Native Collectors’’.................................... 4 Alfonso and Ramo´nOlallainAmazonianPeru.............................. 8 Chapman Engages the Olallas ......................................... 8 Expeditions to Sumaco in Eastern Ecuador................................ 9 DowntheNapo.................................................. 10 Mouth of the Rı´oCuraray.......................................... 11 CarlosReturnstoQuito............................................12 Alfonso and Ramo´nLeavetheCuraray................................. 13 Puerto Indiana ................................................... 13 AMoveDownriver................................................ 16 A Remarkable Decision and a Reversal of Direction ........................ 17 Sarayacu:FirstStopontheUcayali.................................... 20 ThreeLocalitiesalongtheSouthernUcayali.............................. 23 Another Change of Plans and Departure from Peru......................... 26 LabelsontheOlallas’Specimens........................................ 31 LocalitiesoftheOlallas’CollectionsinPeruandNearby....................... 33 Introduction..................................................... 33 Boca Rı´oCuraray................................................. 34 BocaLagartoCocha............................................... 37 Puerto Indiana ................................................... 38 Orosa......................................................... 39 Apayacu....................................................... 40 Sarayacu....................................................... 41 Boca Rı´oUrubamba............................................... 43 Santa Rosa and Lagarto ............................................ 44 Teffe.......................................................... 46 Distributions of Birds in Amazonian Peru ................................. 47 Introduction..................................................... 47 Distributions Confirmed by the Olallas’ Collections ......................... 47 Accepted Distributions Challenged by the Olallas’ Collections ................. 49 Limits of Distributions along the Rı´oUcayali............................. 53 Specimens in Harvey Bassler’s Collection ................................ 54 PrimatesinAmazonianPeru.........................................57 BirdsonRiverIslands.............................................. 60 Birds of Andean Foothills ........................................... 61 MigrantBirds....................................................62 Scarce and Interesting Species Collected by the Olallas....................... 63 Conclusion....................................................... 65 Acknowledgments.................................................. 65 References........................................................ 66 2 ABSTRACT In 1922 Frank M. Chapman hired a family of Ecuadorians to collect birds and mammals for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). In the following two years, Carlos Olalla and his four sons (especially Alfonso and Ramo´n) shipped some 3500 carefully prepared and neatly labeled specimens of Ecuadorian birds to New York. In 1925, under a new contract with the AMNH, the Olallas moved their operations to northeastern Peru, and during the next two and a half years, mostly as a result of efforts by Alfonso and Ramo´n, they sent over 7000 specimens of birds to New York from Amazonian Peru, as well as additional thousands of specimens of mammals. The two brothers shifted their operations to Brazil in 1928. Alfonso went on to ship even larger collections of birds from Brazil to museums in the United States, Sweden, and Brazil. Altogether these collections have provided the documentation for much of what we now know about the distributions of Amazonian birds and mammals. In 1962 accusations surfaced that the Olallas had falsified much of the information about their specimens. Although based on hearsay, these accusations raised lingering doubts about the Olallas’ collections. Alfonso sent reports of the brothers’ activities to the AMNH with their shipments of specimens. These reports together with their correspondence with Chapman and other curators are still preserved in the archives of the departments of ornithology and mammalogy. Examination of these archives and of most of the Olallas’ specimens of birds and primates from Peru provides a clear view of their activities for the first time. All of the Olallas’ collecting sites in Amazonian Peru can now be confidently located, and a large majority of their specimens from these localities accord with current understanding of avian distributions in Amazonian Peru. The accusations of general carelessness or systematic duplicity can thus be rejected. Nevertheless, there remains a small number of problematic specimens. Especially suspect are those acquired from the Olallas in Iquitos by Harvey Bassler with labels from the mouth of the Rı´o Urubamba. These specimens eventually came to the AMNH as a part of Bassler’s collection, rather than directly from the Olallas. Alfonso and Ramo´n Olalla’s choice of collecting sites suggests that they became aware of the importance of major rivers in limiting avian distributions in Amazonia, and their correspondence with Chapman suggests that their collections brought this insight to the attention of ornithologists in New York. In addition, their collections suggest patterns of avian distribution that still need further investigation, especially the extension of some species of the Andean foothills into the lowlands of upper Amazonia and the less consistent limitations of avian distributions by the upper Rı´o Ucayali in comparison to the Rı´o Amazonas. No doubt some of the Olallas’ specimens indicate yet undiscovered features of avian distribution in upper Amazonia, where, despite Alfonso and Ramo´n’s pioneering efforts, there is surely more to learn. INTRODUCTION ers went on to collect thousands of additional birds for the AMNH in Brazil. Later, he During the 1920s the American Museum collected further thousands of specimens for of Natural History (AMNH) engaged a other museums in North America, Europe, family of Ecuadorians, Carlos Olalla and and Brazil. As a result, it is possible that his sons (Alfonso, Ramo´n, Manuel, and members of the Olalla family collected the Rosalino), to collect birds and mammals in majority of all specimens of Amazonian birds Ecuador and Peru. As a result, the museum currently in museums around the world. acquired over 10,000 specimens of neatly They certainly did so in the first half of the prepared and labeled specimens of birds and 20th century. hundreds of specimens of mammals. Many of This entire corpus of work has been cast these specimens were later exchanged with or into shadow by charges of duplicity and sold to other museums. Altogether they carelessness. These accusations arose from a formed the basis for systematic revisions of single source in 1962 and were subsequently many Amazonian birds and primates. In pursued by a single ornithologist. Attempting subsequent decades, one of the Olalla broth- to understand what can and what cannot be 3 4 BULLETIN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY NO. 343 trusted in the Olallas’ enormous body of collector in Ecuador, asserted that he had work is an important enterprise for Neotrop- seen the Olallas falsify their labels: ical ornithology and mammalogy. This re- I know of one important instance in particular view focuses on the Olallas’ collections from [of irregularities by native collectors]— Dr. Amazonian Peru in the interval from 1925 to Chapman of the Am. Museum paid a family 1928, the period on which the accusations of native collectors very handsomely to get also focus. together a collection of birds from the lower After reviewing the accusations and the Putumayo and the Napo rivers.… The collec- controversy they engendered, I examine the tors only covered about half of their assigned documentary evidence for the Olallas’ itiner- territory but the labels on the specimens showed ary in Peru, their procedures for labeling them collected from a dozen collecting stations specimens, and the locations where they that they never visited and in cases where 20 or more specimens were collected in a single day, worked. This evaluation relies heavily on the dates were ‘‘fixed up’’ to show that the Alfonso Olalla’s manuscript journals in the material had been collected over a period of 6 archives of the AMNH departments of mos.! I not only happened along and saw the ornithology and mammalogy. In addition, I collectors, the specimens & the labels, but heard have examined most of the specimens of them talk of how easy it was—that it made no birds and primates collected by the Olallas in real difference—‘‘the gringos would never know Peru, including nearly all those in the anyway! the important thing was to give them a AMNH but also many in other museums. lot of material with diversified labels’’—I’ve In the end, there appears to be no compelling often