Welcome to a series of identification keys to the mammals of Tanzania. These keys should allow you to determine the identity of a skull or skin of most mammals found in Tanzania. Although these tools were designed primarily for natural resource managers and biologists at Tanzanian universities, we hope that most people with an interest in mammals at any level will find it interesting, if not useful. Two keys are presented here: one designed so that an adult mammal can be identified by skin characteristics (and, occasionally with some features evident in the mouth of the animal), and another that is based solely on skull characteristics. Use of these keys with juvenile mammals may result in inaccurate identifications. Both keys were designed for use with the specimen (either skin or cleaned skull) in hand, and with access to the World Wide Web, a microscope and calipers (if possible), or a hand lens and ruler. The mammals included here are those listed as occurring in Tanzania in the Check-list of the Mammals of East Africa, published by the East Africa Natural History Society in 1994. While there may be mammals that occur in Tanzania that were not listed in the Check-list, or are not covered in this key, most Tanzanian mammals are addressed. The design of these keys allows the addition of other mammals, as the presence of each of these taxa in Tanzanian is documented. Currently, these keys go to the level of genus. Future keys are planned for species within each genus. Many excellent publications were consulted in the preparation of these keys and are listed in the references section of Credits. These are wonderful sources of additional information about mammals that occur in Tanzania. These keys are works in progress and rely on feedback from users, so we would appreciate any comments you may have. Please e-mail Bill Stanley at tanzaniakey@fmnh.org with queries or comments. For instruction on how to use these keys please go to the Key Instructions page. We strongly recommend that first time users read the key instructions, before using any of these keys.
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