Ladder-backed Woodpecker ssp. Picoides scalaris soulei R. Banks, 1963
Dr Michael E. Soulé (b.1936) graduated (1959) BA from California State University and went on to study for his MA (1962) in Biology and then his PhD (1964) at Stanford University. Soulé and Banks were members of the Belvedere Scientific Expedition to the Gulf of California (1962) collecting, for example, rattlesnakes together and several of the eponymous woodpeckers. He went on to become a lecturer in Zoology at the University of Malawi 1965-1967). He was than at the University of California San Diego (1967-1979). He was Director of a Buddhist Institute (1978–1983) and Associate Director of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (1981– 1983). After being Associate Professor at the University of Michigan (1984–1989) he joined the University of California Santa Cruz, taking the chair of Environmental Studies (1989) and becoming Professor Emeritus after retirement (1999), and is now in private consultancy. Banks says in his etymology: 'This bird is named for my friend and field companion, Michael Soulé.' He has written a greatmany articles and papers and edited, written or co-written ten books including: Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity (1986).
