Lawrence Richard Heaney (born December 2, 1952, in Washington, DC ) is an American mammalogist, ecologist and biogeographer. His research focus is the mammals of the Philippines.
From June 1967 to June 1971, Heaney was a helper and museum technician at the Department of Mammals at the Smithsonian Institution. From June 1971 to September 1971, Heaney worked as a collector for the Delaware Museum of Natural History. From June 1972 to June 1975 he was a curator and research associate at the University of Minnesota. From June 1973 to August 1975 he was field and research assistant at the Smithsonian Institution. In June 1975, Heaney earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota. From August 1975 to May 1979 he was curatorial assistant, teaching and research assistant at the University of Kansas. In May 1978, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from the University of Kansas and, in October 1979, his Ph.D. From September 1979 to August 1986, he was assistant professor at the department of biology and assistant curator at the department of mammals at the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan. From 1986 to 1988 he was a research fellow and since 1988 he has been a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution. Since 1991 he has been a research assistant at the American Museum of Natural History. From 1988 he was curator and since 2002 he has been head of the mammalogical department of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.
In 2008, Heaney and his colleague Danilo S. Balete rediscovered the Blacktail Luzon Tree Rat ( Pulomys melanurus ) on the Pulag on Luzon, a rodent that had been considered lost for 112 years. [1]
Mammals described by Heaney include, among others, the Tawi-Tawi forest rat ( Rattus tawitawiensis ), the Palawan Montane squirrel ( Sundasciurus rabori), the Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat ( Crateromys australis), the Dinagat Gymnure ( Podogymnura aureospinula) and nine species of Apomys : Apomys aurorae , Apomys banahao , Apomys brownorum , Apomys iridensis , Apomys magnus , Apomys minganensis , Apomys camiguinensis , Apomys lubangensis and Apomys sierrae .
In 1996, Pedro C. Gonzales and Robert S. Kennedy named the Panay Bark Rat ( Crateromys heaneyi ) in his honor. [2] In 1997, Colin Groves honored Heaney in naming the subspecies Prionailurus bengalensis heaneyi , the Bengal cat from the Philippine island of Palawan. [3]
The Philippine archipelago is one of the world's great reservoirs of biodiversity and endemism. The archipelago includes over 7000 islands, and a total land area of 300,780 km2.
The Old World rats and mice, part of the subfamily Murinae in the family Muridae, comprise at least 519 species. Members of this subfamily are called murines. In terms of species richness, this subfamily is larger than all mammal families except the Cricetidae and Muridae, and is larger than all mammal orders except the bats and the remainder of the rodents.
Apomys, commonly known as earthworm mice, is a genus of rodent endemic to the Philippines. Mice belonging to this genus are generally called Philippine forest mice and can be found on most islands of the Philippines except in Palawan, the Sulu Archipelago, and the Batanes and Babuyan group of islands.
Batomys is a genus of rodent endemic to the Philippines. It has six extant described species.
The Philippine deer, also known as the Philippine sambar or Philippine brown deer, is a vulnerable deer species endemic to the Philippines. It was first described from introduced populations in the Mariana Islands, hence the specific name.
The cloud rats or cloudrunners are a tribe (Phloeomyini) of arboreal and nocturnal herbivorous rodents endemic to the cloud forests of the Philippines. They belong to the family Muridae and include five genera: Batomys, Carpomys, Crateromys, Musseromys, and Phloeomys. They range in size from as large as 50 cm (20 in) to as small as 74 mm (2.9 in). Cloud rats are threatened by habitat loss and illegal hunting. Several species are endangered or critically endangered.
The Panay cloudrunner is the second-largest cloud rat, a squirrel-like rodent that is found on the island of Panay in the Philippines. It is the most endangered rodent species in Panay, and one of the only few known cloud rat species in the world.
The Camiguin forest mouse is a forest mouse endemic to the island of Camiguin in the southern Philippines. It has large ears and eyes, a long tail and rusty-brown fur, and it feeds mostly on insects and seeds. This description is based on mice captured during a biological survey conducted in 1994 and 1995 high on the steep slopes of one of the island's volcanoes.
The shrewlike rats, genus Rhynchomys, also known as the tweezer-beaked rats are a group of unusual Old World rats found only on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. They look a great deal like shrews and are an example of convergent evolution. Shrewlike rats evolved to be vermivores and insectivores feeding on soft-bodied invertebrates associated with leaf litter.
The Luzon montane forest mouse is a species of rodent in the family Muridae, from the genus Apomys. It occurs only in the Philippines, where it has been found on the large northern island Luzon. It is most closely related to the large Mindoro forest mouse, which occurs on Mindoro. There may be another related species in the Sierra Madre, but this species is yet undescribed. The Luzon montane forest mouse is a relatively large, ground-dwelling rat with a tail that is quite short for its genus.
The large Mindoro forest mouse is a species of rodent in the family Muridae, from the genus Apomys. It is found only in the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is a large mouse with large feet, a long tail and an elongated snout which is morphologically unique within its genus. It is covered in soft fur which is mostly dark brown in colour. Its closest relative is thought to be the Luzon montane forest mouse, based on genetic and morphological similarities.
The Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat, Dinagat crateromys or Dinagat cloud rat is a species of cloud rat in the family Muridae. It is one of the eight cloud rats found only in the Philippines, and is specifically endemic to Dinagat Island. It is known locally as hawili. A single specimen was discovered in 1975 by Dioscoro S. Rabor and his team during a scientific survey in Dinagat. The natural habitat is tropical lowland forests, which are facing environmental threats. Habitat loss is caused by progressive deforestation from heavy logging and chromite mining in the area. Almost 40 years after the original discovery, five live specimens were discovered by Milada Řeháková, Václav Řehák and William L.R. Oliver, in 2012.
Crateromys is a genus of rodent, native to the Philippines, in the family Muridae. It contains four species extant species, and one extinct species.
The Philippine long-tailed macaque is a subspecies of the crab-eating macaque, known in various Philippine languages as matching/matsing or the more general term unggoy ("monkey"). It is endemic to the Philippine forests and woodlands, but especially in the mangrove forests of western central Philippines— particularly in Palawan, the Visayas, and Mindanao. The names M. f. philippinensis and M. f. philippinenesis have also been used, but arise from orthographical error.
The Visayan leopard cat, known locally as maral, is a Sunda leopard cat population in the Philippine Islands of Negros, Cebu and Panay. It has been listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 2008 under its former scientific name P. bengalensis rabori as its range is estimated to be less than 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi), and the population was thought to be decreasing.
Mount Data is a mountain located in the Cordillera Central mountain range rising to a height of 2,310 metres (7,580 ft) in the north of Luzon Island, Philippines. It is about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Baguio on the borders of the provinces of Benguet and Mountain Province along the Halsema Highway. The mountain and surrounding area has been declared a national park since 1936. In 1940 the park was expanded to 5,513 hectares. The slopes of the mountain are covered with pine forests and mossy oak forests.
Batomys uragon is a species of cloud rat endemic to the Philippines. It was first discovered in 1988, and the full description was published in 2015, in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. It is so far found only on Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. The first specimen was collected from Mount Isarog at the southern side of the island. Other 14 specimens were later collected. It is the fourth species of mammal living only on that mountain. The new species was described by Danilo S. Balete, Eric A. Rickart, Lawrence R. Heaney, and Sharon A. Jansa. It was classified as new species based on DNA analyses and structural descriptions. It is different from its closest relative, the Luzon hairy-tailed rat, in its cytochrome b sequence, moderate body size, colour patterns, and skull structure.
The Sunda leopard cat is a small wild cat species native to the Sundaland islands of Java, Bali, Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines that is considered distinct from the leopard cat occurring in mainland South and Southeast Asia.
Danilo S. Balete, also known as Danny Balete, was a Filipino zoologist and biologist. His is known for his work on the Philippines' endemic mammal species. He pursued the question of what determines species diversity. The research by Balete and his team overturned previously held notions that diversity decreased in mountainous regions, showing that harsh environments could generate, rather than suppress, species diversity.