Peter Grubb (1942 – 23 December 2006) was a British zoologist. He often collaborated with Colin Groves and described several new mammal taxa including '' Felis margarita harrisoni'' (a subspecies of the sand cat), the Bornean yellow muntjac, the Nigerian white-throated guenon, '' Cephalophus nigrifrons hypoxanthus'', the white-legged duiker, '' Cephalophus silvicultor curticeps'', '' Cephalophus weynsi lestradei'', the Kashmir musk deer, and the Niger Delta red colobus. Grubb was born in Dumfries,

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the hi ...

, but moved to Ealing West London when he was a small child. His father William Grubb was a research chemist at the

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

and later worked as a science teacher in London. His mother Anne Sirutis was a school teacher from

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. His younger sister Katrina is an artist. After his BSc graduation in Zoology at the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Grubb was research assistant in the Wellcome Institute of the Zoological Society of London. In the 1960s he went to St Kilda for three years where he studied

Soay sheep The Soay sheep is a breed of domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') descended from a population of feral sheep on the island of Soay, St Kilda, Soay in the St Kilda, Scotland, St Kilda Archipelago, about from the Western Isles of Scotland. It is one ...

for his PhD thesis. For this work he received a special mention as runner-up for the Thomas Henry Huxley Award of the Zoological Society of London in 1968. In the same year he took part in the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

expedition to Aldabra where he worked particularly on the Aldabra giant tortoises. Subsequently, he lectured at the University of Ghana for twelve years. His main research field was the taxonomy and distribution of African mammals. In 1993 and 2005 he wrote the

Artiodactyla Artiodactyls are placental mammals belonging to the order (biology), order Artiodactyla ( , ). Typically, they are ungulates which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes (the third and fourth, often in the form of a hoof ...

and Perissodactyla sections for the publication '' Mammal Species of the World''. He also contributed to '' Mammalian Species'', the journal of the American Society of Mammalogists. He published checklists of West African mammals (for instance for Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Ghana) and wrote several revisions, including on warthogs, gerenuks and buffalo. In 1993 he co-edited the IUCN publication ''Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan''. In 1977 botanist Francis Raymond Fosberg named the '' Portulaca'' variety ''Portulaca mauritiensis var. grubbii'' from Cosmoledo after Grubb which is now included in ''Portulaca mauritiensis var. aldabrensis''. In June 2006 he was honored with the Stamford Raffles Award of the Zoological Society of London.Zoological Society of London announces winners of its annual awards
After two surgeries Peter Grubb died from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in December 2006. He was married and had two children.

Notes

References

Peter Grubb (1942–2006)
Collected Obituaries by John F. Oates, Colin Groves, Douglas Brandon Jones, Barry Hughes
Obituary at the Mammal Society
by Derek Yalden. {{DEFAULTSORT:Grubb, Peter 1942 births 2006 deaths 20th-century British zoologists Alumni of University College London