FROG BLOG MANCHESTER

Over the past month I’ve been extremely busy teaching, and students taught have ranged from local schools and colleges to our very own biology and  zoology students. On Friday I delivered another practical teaching session based on adaptation and classification for our 1st year students from the Faculty of Life Sciences.

Apart from many other wonderful specimens from our live collection, this session allowed the students to come face to face with our fantastic new Panther Chameleon (pictured above) which was very kindly supplied to us by Jamie and Laura at Chameleoco. Our other specimen, Bubblegum, is now very old for a chameleon and so is going into semi-retirement, off display. However, he loves being handled so much he will continue to be used in the classroom during our other special teaching sessions. Our new chameleon has been doing well off-display but is now ready to make his public appearance – he will be on full public display from today, so why not come along and see our stunning brightly-coloured new addition if you get the chance.

I would again like to say a big thank you to Amanda and all the demonstrators who helped on Friday. Photos from Friday practical are featured below, and any feedback from students from the session would be very welcomed.

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Chameleoco                  UOM Zoology Society                   Faculty of Life Sciences

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On Friday I delivered a practical teaching session based on adaptation and classification for our 1st year Zoology and Biology students from the Faculty of Life Sciences. The session has been developed in collaboration with my colleague Dr Amanda Bamford and together we aim to provide our students with the best possible learning experience. This practical session allows students to get first-hand experience with some of our live animals from the Vivarium collection and introduces them to basic taxonomy and the use of dichotomous keys.

I would like to say a big thank you to Amanda, and to all the demonstrators who helped on Friday. I’d also like to say what a pleasure it was to welcome our students from FLS to the Museum and hope they enjoyed the session as much as we did delivering it.

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    Teaching                      UOM Zoology Society                   Faculty of Life Sciences

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As views on the blog near 100,000, it’s prompted me to contemplate how far-reaching the voice of a blog can actually extend. Since starting the blog I have had feedback from all corners of the world and it’s so good when I get comments back from people – communication’s a two way thing so thanks to everyone for their  feedback and support. Because the blog is not just restricted to herpetology, amphibians or reptiles, but conservation and far-reaching ecological issues, it’s also great to know its reaching such a worldwide audience. Wherever you are in the world I would love to hear back from you anytime, so perhaps you might think about  joining WordPress and sending me a comment or question or two? It’s free, and so easy to do.

Because it’s not always possible to judge how posts are received, viewing stats to assess a response is sometimes the only thing bloggers have to do this.  However, recently WordPress has come up with a fantastic new map feature for its bloggers that allows them to see exactly where on Earth all the visitors to their site are coming from, it’s amazing  -  and amazing for me to see that in the past month frogblog has had visitors from 58 countries around the world!

Find out more about the map use if you are already a WordPress user

Not already a WordPress user but would like send me a comment

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The first time I ever travelled to Ecuador, I visited a very special place – a particular primary rainforest reserve that held the most incredible amount of species I have ever witnessed. The research station I stayed at was called Jatun Sacha. That was many, many years ago. It was such a remarkable place, an experience I could never forget…

Recently, by chance, my path crossed with Silvana Bacca, the Jatun Sacha international volunteer co-ordinator. In all the places, in all the World, Manchester.

For the next talk in our series, on the 13th March, Silvana will be giving a special presentation about Ecuador and the incredible volunteer opportunities now being offered by the Jatun Sacha Foundation. Opportunities that include volunteer, research, and community-based programs in five biological stations located in the Andes, Coastal Region, Amazonian Rainforest, and the Galapagos Archipelago.

Everyone is welcome to attend the talk, which will be held in the Kanaris Theatre at The Manchester Museum between 12 – 1pm.  So, if you’re University staff, a student, or a member of the public, you might want to let your friends and colleagues know about this event. This talk, and the opportunities presented, are open to all. The talk will start at 12.00 prompt and is there is no charge whatsoever.

Why not come along and find out how you could work in one of the most biologically diverse areas in the World.  Who knows where it could lead…

Jatun Sacha      Manchester Museum     Tale from the Bush     Personal Presentations

Many thanks to our Vivarium Volunteer Xaali for producing the fab poster above!

TALK ALSO ON THE 13TH MARCH FOR THE I.H.S,  -  ALL WELCOME!

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This weekend our student Becky Cliffe features in ‘Meet the sloths‘, a fun film all about the sloths at the Aviarios Sanctuary in Costa Rica: BBC NEWS FEATURE HERE

‘Meet the sloths’ premieres in the UK this Sunday (March 4th) at 8pm on Animal Planet.

Becky spent last year doing her placement project at the sanctuary in Costa Rica as part of her Zoology Degree here at The University of Manchester and had a such wonderful experience whilst researching these amazing creatures.

The Sanctuary is a place that’s very close to my heart and I am so pleased it is finally getting the attention it deserves for the great work being done there. To find out more about Aviarios, their sloths, and Becky’s placement year please see the links below:

    AVIARIOS DEL CARIBE                SLOTHS             BECKY’S PLACEMENT

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To coincide with Leap Day (February 29^th) 2012, Manchester Museum is participating in an international event being organised by the Amphibian Ark - Leaping Ahead of Extinction: A celebration of good news for amphibians in 2012.

As part of our activities planned, and in conjunction with our Museum Meets Programme, we have a series of amphibian conservation related talks specially organised for Leap day. These are  amphibian talks aimed at Ages 15+ and are offered free of charge. However, there are limited places available, and these need to be booked in advance to avoid disappointment:

Leap Day talks at The Manchester Museum, and to book a place to attend these.

A super poster has also been created to promote Leap Day, with amphibian art being generously donated by a group of artists. Download the poster for your wall HERE.

Leap Frog 2012     Amphibian Ark      Museum Meets     Personal Presentations

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It was with great sadness that today I learned Nick Standen, a old friend of mine, had passed away. Nick was a herpetologist with more than 40 years’ experience of reptiles and amphibians, which he had been studying and captive  breeding for over 30 years. He had an extreme passion for the scientific study of his animals and was meticulous in recording all aspects of their behaviour and reproduction.

Nick had a degree in Zoology from Southampton University and spent his formative herpetological years in Newbury, Berkshire. He had travelled extensively to see reptiles in the wild, including going to places such as Australia, South America, Mexico, and Indonesia. More recently he spent time travelling throughout Europe including Spain, Greece, Portugal and also Morocco, to study, film and photograph wildlife.

He was an expert on Spanish reptiles and amphibians, and had written articles and helped out with species identification for the local community after moving to  Benamargosa, near Velez-Malaga.  Here, Nick had dedicated his land as a wildlife oasis to help preserve local European reptiles.  Nick’s Reptiles.

Nick will be missed by all who knew him for his quiet but unassuming manner, his sense of humour, and also his unbounded knowledge and enthusiasm for animals and plants.

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With it being Half-term holidays, this week’s been extremely busy in The Museum and the Vivarium’s been absolutely packed full of families with children. Many of our engagement activities are for kids and we have a fantastic programme of events for them. Apart from supporting learning for children one of the many things we are working hard to develop is support for adult learning and also opportunities to involve and support older people from across the city.

Last week we had a visit from some residents of Shore Green, a specialist service that provides accommodation, support and care to older people with memory loss to enable them to live independent lives for as long as possible. One of my colleagues, Andrea Winn, has been developing our relationship with Shore Green and has been working with them since May 2011. This was initiated through the valuing older people network, a city wide initiative that connects older residents in the city with cultural venues.

Andrea has visited the group in their centre on several occasions, taking different objects from the museums collections out to the group.  These have ranged from objects relating to Manchester’s history, China, allotments, and more recently with me and some of the live animal collection. This essential groundwork has been key to developing the relationship with Shore Green, and led to the their first visit to us. It was such a pleasure to welcome the residents and also Sally and Sophie (pictured), who helped organise and manage the visit last week.

A Friday Afternoon Trip      Engagement      Shore Green     Valuing Older People

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I’d like to say a big thanks to all the Salford University students who gave their talk today, well done guys, it was great! The next talk in the series is all about volunteer opportunities in the Ecuadorian rainforest – so if you’re interested in this be sure to keep an eye on the blog for more details coming soon.

One blog I have been keeping an eye on myself this week has been one that’s focused on ‘Culture Shots; Museum & Galleries Week’,     a superb initiative that’s involved a wide variety of Museum and Gallery events taking place within 5 hospitals in Manchester. The week-long packed programme for health professionals and patients has been aimed at improving peoples health and well-being.

Well, when I was over at the Children’s Hospital yesterday I certainly saw lots of smiles – which have got to be good for your health! It was a real pleasure to support the initiative and to let the staff and the kids experience some of our animals first-hand. I hope everyone who attended enjoyed it as much as I did being there.

The whole initiative appears to be a huge success – many congratulations to all involved and those who have worked so hard in putting it together!      Read more   

Wendy Gallagher                        Modern Designers                        University Hospitals

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