Evaluación del estado de salud de la colección de murciélagos (Mammalia: Chiroptera) del Museo de La Salle, Bogotá MLS-mam

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Founded in 1904, the mammalogy collection of the Museo de La Salle (MLS) has the oldest specimens of its kind in Colombia. Due to its age, it is necessary to constantly and periodically evaluate the database, disposition, storage environment conditions, and the information on each specimen. To this end, we calculated the collection health index (CHI) by reviewing both the data and the geographic representation of the collections based on the evaluation methods proposed by Cárdenas & Delgadillo (2019) and Acosta & Vallejo (2005). The CHI was 79.86%, which indicates that the collection has a good state of conservation. The data completeness for specimens deposited before 2000 was 3.7 % and 2.20% for those after this date, i.e., that the collection has good data quality. On the other hand, the geographic index was 77.41% evidencing an adequate representation of the country's different regions as a result of the collections made by the community of La Salle brothers; Norte de Santander is the department with the highest number of records, 293 specimens, followed by Santander with 174. Finally, despite the potential of the collection as one of the historical references of Colombian mammalogy, the absence for several years of expert curators is evidenced in the taxonomic outdating of a large part of the collection, as well as the need to have adequate storage units for its correct access and future growth.