Wikipedia:WikiProject Mammals
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wikipedia:WikiProject_Mammals".

This page is not so much a project policy page as a means of getting a handle on how much of the mammals Wikipedia covers. Right now policy is covered by Grandmother project Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life, sister project Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds, and children projects Wikipedia:WikiProject Primates, Wikipedia:WikiProject Cetaceans,Wikipedia:WikiProject Dog breeds and Wikipedia:WikiProject Cats.

Classification taken from the Mammal article which in turn was taken from the classic classification by Simpson (no end of controversy possible here).

Order, Size, Depth of coverage, Appropiateness of coverage (requires an expert in the field to judge, I guess)

Work groups

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Mammals/Pocket pets work group
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Mammals/Weasels work group

Departments

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Mammals/Assessment

Recognized content

Featured articles

1. Blue Whale – also under WP Cetaceans
2. Beagle
3. Bobcat – also under WP Cats
4. Cougar – also under WP Cats
5. Domestic sheep
6. Elk
7. Fin Whale – also under WP Cetaceans
8. Flocke
9. Giant Otter
10. Guinea pig
11. Hippopotamus
12. Homo floresiensis - also under WP Primates
13. Humpback Whale – also under WP Cetaceans
14. Island Fox
15. Jaguar – also under WP Cats
16. Javan Rhinoceros
17. Knut (polar bear)
18. Lion – also under WP Cats
19. Orca – also under WP Cetaceans
20. Platypus
21. Pygmy Hippopotamus
22. Right whale – may need a bit of sprucing; also under WP Cetaceans
23. Sea otter
24. Sei Whale – also under WP Cetaceans
25. Short-beaked Echidna
26. Sumatran Rhinoceros
27. Tasmanian Devil
28. Thylacine
29. Whale song – also under WP Cetaceans

Good articles

1. Arabian horse
2. Bottlenose Dolphin – also under WP Cetaceans
3. Herdwick (sheep)
4. Labrador Retriever
5. Malagasy Hippopotamus
6. Mountain Gorilla - also under WP Primates
7. Nicobar Long-tailed Macaque - also under WP Primates
8. Philippine Tarsier - also under WP Primates
9. Primate - also under WP Primates
10. Raccoon
11. Ring-tailed Lemur - also under WP Primates
12. Walrus

DYKs (Did You Know)s

1. Chamitataxus – 25 March 2007
2. Agile Mangabey - 15 July 2008
3. South American Coati - 17 July 2008
4. Antarctic Minke Whale - 19 July 2008
5. Common Minke Whale - 19 July 2008
6. Southern Woolly Lemur - 28 July 2008
7. Black Lemur - 5 August 2008
8. Common Brown Lemur - 8 August 2008
9. Kashmir Gray Langur - 9 August 2008
10. Island raccoon - 15 August 2008
11. Geoffroy's Spider Monkey - 3 September 2008
12. White-headed Capuchin - 9 September 2008
13. Mantled Howler - 10 September 2008

Formerly recognized content

Former featured articles

• Cat – also under WP Cats
• Gray Wolf
• Human
• Mixed-breed dog
• Sperm Whale – also under WP Cetaceans

Former good articles

• Blue Wildebeest
• Elephant

Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team release version selections

• Badger
• Blue Wildebeest
• Bottlenose Dolphin
• Cattle
• Elephant
• Gray Wolf
• Homo floresiensis
• Island Fox
• Platypus
• Rabbit
• Tasmanian Devil
• Weasel
• Wolverine

Monotremes

• Monotremata, Platypus and spiny anteaters, 5 species in 2 families, One article for each family, covering each species
  

Marsupials

• Didelphimorphia, common opossums, about 100 species in one family, article covering the whole family
  
• Paucituberculata, shrew opposums, 6 species in one family, article covering the whole family
  
• Microbiotheria, the "Monito del Monte" – one species with an article
  
• Dasyuromorphia, carnivorous marsupials – 73 species in two families, mixed coverage?
  
• Peramelemorphia, bandicoots, bilbies, 22 species in two families, coverage at subfamily level (3? articles)
  
• Notoryctemorphia, marsupial mole, 2 species in one family, single article
  
• Diprotodontia, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, wombats, koalas, 143 species in 11 families, mixed coverage?
  

Placentals

• Afrosoricida, golden moles and tenrecs, otter shrews, 52 species in 2 families,
  
• Macroscelidea, elephant shrews, 15 species in 1 family, 1 article
  
• Tubulidentata, the aardvark, 1 species, Good article
  
• Hyracoidea, hyraxes, 6 species in 3 genera, 1 family, 1 article
  
• Proboscidea, elephants, 3 species in 1 family, 3 articles, two very stubbish
  
• Sirenia, seacows and manatees, 5 species in 2 families, mixed
  
• Xenarthra, true anteaters, sloths, armadillios, 31 species in 4 families, mixed
  
• Dermoptera, Colugos (flying lemurs) 2 species in one family. Good article
  
• Desmostylia, extinct herbivorous marine mammals, more to add
  
• Scandentia, tree shrews, 19 species in 6 genera, 1 family, more to add
  
• Primates, people, apes, monkeys, etc. :), >405 species, 65 genera, 15 families, Active WikiProject
  
• Rodentia, Lots of mice, rats, guinea pigs, squirrels, hamsters, gerbils, more than 2300 species in nearly 500 genera and 34 families, could be a big topic (no surprise there, as it is the biggest order of mammals!)
  
• Lagomorpha, rabbits, hares and pikas, ~87 species in two families, overview article, NOT to be confused with rodents see above
  
• Insectivora, shrews, hedgehogs, moles, moonrats, five families, 23 in Erinaceidae (hedgehogs), 9 in Nesophontidae, 3 in Solenodontidae, 43 in Talpidae, 368 in Soricidae, mixed coverage
  
• Chiroptera, Bats, more than 1100 species in 20 families, different style article, mixed coverage
  
• Pholidota, Pangolins, 7 species in 1 genus, One nice article
  
• Carnivora (inc. pinnipedia) Dogs, Raccoons, Bears, Weasels, Skunks, Cats, Civets, Mongeese, Hyenas, Seals, Walrus, ~265 species in 12 families, Mixed coverage, Plenty of excellent articles (inc. a whole project on Dog Breeds)
  
• Perissodactyla Horses, tapirs and rhinos, 15 species in 3 families
  
• Artiodactyla Pigs, hippos, peccaries, camels, deer, giraffe, pronghorn, cattle, sheep, goats, okapi, chevrotains 220 species in 10 families
  
• Cetacea 86 species in ~20 genera, Active WikiProject, Articles to genus or species level of mixed quality, some more general coverage

Participants

All users should feel free to add {{User WikiProject Mammals}} to their userpages.

• Sushant gupta (talk) – Portal:Mammals maintenance.
• Sambostock
• Ucucha
• UtherSRG (talk) – updating articles wrt MSW 3.
• Spawn Man – Will try hardest to help.
• Mammalia
• Enlil Ninlil
• KalevTait
• Pmaas
• TeaDrinker
• Guy Manners
• Daniel10
• Valich – Carnivoramorpha, Miacoidea, Amphicyonidae (Bear-dogs), Carnivores (have to distinquish between "meat-eaters" and carnivores), Red Panda
• Petens veritas – I shall truly enjoy doing research and helping out.
• Zesty Prospect
• TeamZissou
• Patricknoddy^{TALK (reply here)|HISTORY}
• DaMatriX Phylogeny, evolution, relationships, extinct groups
• Mehmet Karatay Expanding stubs
• Enok^talk – Expanding and rewriting mammal articles that don't fit in any of the child projects
• kinda
• Aranae
• Dracontes
• Sabine's Sunbird When I have the time.
• Shyamal Indian species, here and there.
• Lighthead ^þ The cladistics of mammal species.
• •Zhuge Liang• ^[Chat]
• Merbabu Indonesian species, maybe Australian too from time to time.
• John Carter 15:31, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
• User:Karina-May Hilton 17:06, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
• Eliezg
• Doug.^{(talk • contribs)} 02:43, 20 October 2007 (UTC) Focus on domesticated species and their wild relatives and coordinating between this project and WikiProject Agriculture
• Dave (Talk | contribs) 07:39, Tuesday October 14, 2008 (UTC)
• User: Foxygramps 10:58 November 11 Working on Ruppell's Fox page
• Writtenonsand (talk) 19:41, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
• Clayoquot
• Rlendog
• Jack Hynes – Mostly Primates
• Metanoid – mostly Carnivora, tho i tend to hop around. i like to dig for sources... so probably a bit of everything! (to tell the truth, i thought i'd already signed on, but i guess that was the drugs talking ;)) – Metanoid (talk, email) 01:27, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
• Blahark
• Shoombooly Currently: Sort out Bat. Create articles for all bat species (subspecies not included unless notable). Add status system to as many Bat taxoboxes as possible. Why? Because bats have the coolest names
• Drakesketchit
• Ironholds 01:40, 29 June 2008 (UTC). I've already created articles on all the missing species in the Arvicolinae subfamily, and am going to be doing so with the rest of the rodent subfamilies.
• Carbon Rodney (Talk but be nice) 14:56, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
• Novil Ariandis ← raccoon fanatic who occasionally makes minor improvements to other mammal articles as well
• Maias
• Visionholder - lemur articles, as well as general evolution and ecology

Use a taxobox

Elephant
African Bush (Savannah) Elephant in Kenya.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Vertebrata Class: Mammalia Order: Proboscidea Family: Elephantidae Gray, 1821
Genera and Species
Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Elephas recki † Stegodon † Mammuthus †

In general, mammal entries should have taxoboxes. This is something we have inherited from the Tree of Life WikiProject, and is standard. If you don't know how to use a taxobox then leave a message on this talk page or the article's talk page.

Capitalization

The issue of the capitalization of the common names of mammal species is unresolved on Wikipedia and our pages are inconsistent. A large majority of reliable sources do not capitalize and thus there is a strong descriptive argument against doing so. Capitalization will often not "feel" right for editors for this reason. Conversely, because species names are proper nouns there is also a strong argument in favour of capitalization. Upper case usage is well-established with Aves species, for example. There are actually three possibilities in capitalizing:

1. Never capitalize.
2. Always capitalize.
3. Capitalize when the species itself is referred to, as this is proper noun usage, but not where the phraseology indicates a common noun. Thus: "The Tiger is a carnivore" but "three tigers were observed in the conservation area."

The third is most correct orthographically, but it is also the most difficult to maintain. In the absence of consensus:

• Respect the original or primary authors; do not up and change something without notification, as you may be reverted.
• The form chosen should be used consistently across an article.

Taxonomy

Because mammal taxonomy is constantly being revised and debated, there is no single "correct" taxonomy. In order to minimize inconsistencies and conflicts, this project generally defers to Mammal Species of the World: Third Edition (MSW3) as a taxonomic reference. Exceptions may be made, however, for newly discovered species or taxonomic revisions with significant scientific consensus. For any exceptions to MSW3, please discuss on the relevant talk pages before making changes.

Talk pages

Place {{MaTalk}} at the top of an article's talk page. This will help direct editors to this page for guidance. As monotremes and marsupials already have their own template, this can be placed alongside the other or not at all.

Articles needing attention

• Biology pages needing attention (cleanup, expansion, wikification, expert needed, etc.)
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Articles without images/Mammals
• Wikipedia:Missing mammal species