Marvin Jones, 77; Was a Pioneer Record-Keeper of Zoo Animals’ Longevity

Marvin Jones, 77, an expert on the longevity of mammals in captivity who compiled family trees of animals in zoos worldwide, died of heart failure April 4 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego.

As a volunteer at the Bronx Zoo in New York in 1944, Jones began keeping records on captive animal populations before it was commonly done. He was hired as the first registrar of animal collections at the San Diego Zoo in 1981.

Much of what is known about the longevity and breeding of captive animals is because of Jones’ work, said Dr. Kurt Benirschke, a researcher at the San Diego Zoo.

For instance, Jones’ extensive record-keeping showed that toco toucans started breeding in a number of zoos at the same time, for unexplained reasons, in 1977.

Jones was born in 1928 in Philadelphia. Drafted into the Army in 1951, he left active duty as a sergeant in 1972 and began consulting with the San Diego Zoo. After retiring, he became the zoo’s registrar emeritus in 1996 and continued to work with zoos throughout the world.