Darrin Lunde

Mammalogist, Field Biologist, Author

Mammal Collection Manager

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Darrin Lunde is a Mammalogist and field biologist with more than thirty years of experience as the Mammal Collection Manager for both the American Museum of Natural History (1991-2010) and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (2010-present).  As part of his work, he has joined museum specimen collecting expeditions throughout South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia where he has logged several years of experience living and working in remote habitats. He has collected thousands of museum specimens and has discovered and described a dozen new mammals. A prolific writer, Darrin is the author of an award-winning biography of Theodore Roosevelt and his life as a museum naturalist (The Naturalist, Crown Publishing, 2016). He is also the author of ten children's books about mammals. Darrin has always been enamored with the golden era of natural history museums and expeditions (1890-1940), and believes the people working in natural history museums today have much to gain from an understanding of the museums and museum makers of that time.