author
Stephen David Durrant
1902–1975
A longtime University of Utah zoologist, he became one of the key experts on the mammals of the American West, especially pocket gophers and other Great Basin rodents. His work helped shape how scientists classified and understood the region’s wildlife.
3 Audiobooks
Three New Beavers from Utah
by Stephen David Durrant, Harold S. (Harold Samuel) Crane
Additional Records and Extensions of Known Ranges of Mammals from Utah
by Stephen David Durrant, Richard M. Hansen, M. Raymond Lee
About the author
Born in Salt Lake City on October 11, 1902, Stephen David Durrant built his career around the study of mammals in Utah and the wider western United States. He taught zoology at the University of Utah for more than 40 years and became especially well known for his research on the genus Thomomys, the pocket gophers that occupied much of his scientific attention.
Durrant was also active in the wider scientific community, serving as president of the American Society of Mammalogists. Archive records and memorial sources describe a long career of teaching, research, and public scholarship, with papers and correspondence preserved at the University of Utah.
He died on November 11, 1975. Remembered as a leading Utah mammalogist, he left behind a body of work that connected careful field observation with the bigger task of naming, comparing, and understanding North American mammals.