Frogs and Physics!

Over the past couple of days we have been running our new A-level study days in conjunction with Dr Mark Dickinson of the Photon Science Institute. The talks and interactive practical sessions are aimed at providing sixth form students with first-hand experience of science in action, and more specifically to help them understand how we are applying some cool innovative techniques to further investigate the optical and structural properties of amphibian skin. Students from Whalley range High School for Girls,Verdin High School, Macclesfield, and Ashton Sixth Form College all visited the museum to get to grips with a wide range of kit which allowed them to investigate the frogs’ thermoregulation and Infra-red reflecting pigments for themselves. 

Following the morning sessions in the Museum, where the pupils got to learn all about the frogs and had an introduction to the physics behind the kit to be used, the afternoon was spent in Mark’s Lab where the pupils used Hi-tech spectrometers, Infra-red cameras, thermal imaging and Optical Coherence Tomography equipment (OCT). OCT is a remarkable new technique being developed at Manchester that allows us to see whats going on below the skin’s surface through producing a series of 3D images using light (see clip below for an OCT image of skin on a human palm (note the spiral sweat gland). We hope everyone from the schools enjoyed their visit and would like to say a big thanks to all the demonstrators who helped us deliver the sessions.  

                   (Image above courtesy of Mark Pierce, Wellman Labs)

Ifra-red reflectance research at Manchester and in Costa Rica:

Andrew shows OCT equipment at Manchester: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7464437.stm  

Mark tests rare frog skin with a spectrometer in Costa Rica: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7603225.stm

Link to The Photon Science Institute : http://www.psi.manchester.ac.uk/

The past, now, Saturday..

Today I am spending the day in the Costa Rican capital, San Jose. I have been to Costa Rica many times in the past and every time I visit it feels like home from home. The Costa Rican rainforest has its own special magic for me, but as I stroll the streets today, I absorb the atmosphere and, as always, try and focus on living in the moment, appreciating every sight, smell, sound..  I also fully appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to travel and to do the job I always dream’t of, even as a boy (pictured above aged 7 with my bucket of tadpoles)

If perhaps you are interested in finding out a little more about how I got to where I am today, I can now confirm that there is to be a piece relating to this in ‘The Times’ on   Saturday the 5th December. It will feature as part of a larger article in “The Times Magazine” called “The New Victorians”.

Soon I will be travelling back to England and this Saturday I will be at the Manchester Museum to support ‘Evolution Revolution’, a special family day event that forms part of the  Museum’s superb ‘Darwin Extravaganza’. Throughout the day I will be showing a wide variety of different reptile and amphibian specimens from our live collection and expaining the wonders of their evolution. If you can come along it would be very good to meet you.

http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/november/

The Costa Rican Amphibian Research Centre

Last night I called in to visit my good friend Brian Kubicki in Guayacan during my trip back to San Jose.  If you are familiar with the blog, you will probably already know how much respect I have for Brian and how I admire his outstanding committment to amphibian conservation. Brian has now established two reserves, both purely dedicated to conserving the rarest  Costa Rican fauna and flora. His scientific knowledge and expertise with amphibians, and especially his specialism for glass frogs, has earned him  justified worldwide recognition. Most of Brian’s work with amphibians focuses on protecting them and modifying the surrounding habitat to help them thrive in the wild. The area within the bundaries of the amphibian Centre is the most diverse for amphibians within the whole of Costa Rica, and includes species only known from the locality. Brian has also focused on studying, breeding and rearing many rare species in captivity, for conservation purposes, which are then released into the reserve. It is a most wonderful place and I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in tropical amphibians to pay him a visit. For a wealth of further information about the work conducted by Brian at the CRARC please see here

CRARC-ver(3.1)(rs)

Please note that Brian is unable to accept volunteers, but for details of how to arrange a tour of the reserve or to book accomodation and stay at the CRARC, please see his website by following the link below

http://www.cramphibian.com/index.htm

Don’t forget that you can also watch up to date video clips in the LIVE section at the top of the blog, many of which relate to main postings such as this.

Sloth Conservation in Costa Rica

Today I visited my old friends Judy and Luis Arroyo at Aviarios del Caribe, a wonderful rescue and research centre for injured and orphaned sloths on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. Over the past 12 years or so I have seen the centre grow considerably and the important work they do increase on a huge scale. It is an absolutely fantastic place and the commitment of Judy and Luis to helping these wonderful creatures never fails to amaze me. The facilities at Aviarios are now really excellent and Judy kindly showed me around the new sloth medical centre, nursery, and the quarters for all the animals. In recent years a fabulous education unit has also been purpose built to educate visitors and locals about sloths and the importance of  helping rather than harming them. Aviarios still needs all the support it can get to help fulfill its mission and I was particularly interested and pleased to hear that a super volunteer programme has now been set up. Whilst supporting this worthy cause, this initiative also provides a great opportunity for people to get experience working with these amazing animals. Anyone interested in hearing more about Aviarios, offering some valuable support, or perhaps helping the sloth sanctuary through offering to volunteer, might want to watch the clip below and check out :   http://www.slothrescue.org/

Vivarium assistants

For the next couple of weeks I will be in Costa Rica, where I’ll be spending some time in the central highlands and also down on the Caribbean coast. Here I plan to visit a range of different animal conservation centres which I hope to report back to you about via the blog. So, while I am out there, if there is anything of particular interest just let me know and I’ll try and make a short clip about it and post it on the ’Live’ section especially.

While I am away it’s really important that I leave the animals in the Museum in safe hands. I have to say that in that respect I am really lucky at the moment as I have two excellent assistants who both really know their stuff and who I can fully rely on to properly care for the animals whilst I’m away; Matt Wilson and Adam Bland. Matt is currently part-time and Adam has been working with the animals here more or less full-time since Darren moved to Vancouver. Both are really knowledgeable about their subject and Adam in particular has a massive amount of experience keeping both amphibians and reptiles in captivity. One of his passions is keeping geckos. Here Adam introduces himself and shows a Caledonian crested gecko:

Denmark and Sweden Visits!

Today I must make a special entry to highlight some of the places I visited whilst in Denmark and Sweden over the past week, and to say a special thanks to the people I have met. Firstly, I would really like thank Søren Werther for kindly inviting me to Denmark in the first instance and I hope my contribution to the amphibian meeting he organised in Copenhagen lived up to what was expected. Søren helps on many conservation projects and is a really super guy. During my time in Denmark I also met some other great people completely committed to animal welfare, husbandry, and conservation:  

Copenhagen Zoo: Here I met the Curator and some very experienced keepers. Lars Jensen from the reptile and amphibian section kindly showed me the animals behind the scenes and explained what they doing to help conserve native species of amphibians and how they are also breeding tropical species such as Blue poison-dart frogs (pictured). Jacob, their enthusiastic entomologist and invertebrate keeper, also showed me his collection, which was great to see. The Curator showed me the education department in detail and introduced me to Allan Maeland, the head of the section. It was really interesting for me to see and hear how important the section was to the zoo and I must say that the department was absolutely brilliant. Here, a wide range of animals were maintained actually in the education department by specialist keepers and educators.  All the cages, tanks, etc were on wheels so they could be moved to each area and they even had a special food prep and veterinarian section within the learning zone. It was pleasure to see.  Many thanks to all at the zoo for their time and sharing their experience.

http://uk.zoo.dk/VisitZoo.aspx

Universeum in Gothenburg: The Universeum is the most amazing public science centre I have ever seen, it  absolutely took my breath away. The 7000 square metre centre is the brainchild of Jan Westin, who met me and kindly showed me all around. It is divided in about six sections each containing a wide variety of fish, insects, reptiles and amphibians in superb conditions. I just couldn’t believe how natural the indoor rainforest section of the centre was – they even had loads of poison-dart frogs, such as dendrobates pumilio roaming free and highly visible. The facilities for keeping animals here is second to none. Johan, their extremely experienced herpetologist, showed the back of house facilities, which include strict quarantine and veterinarian sections. Off display they had some Phyllomedusa bicolor (pictured), which was of particular interest. I was am sure Johan will breed them soon given his wealth of experience. Many thanks Jan and Johan, it was a pleasure.

http://www.universeum.se/index.php?lang=en

Norden’s Ark, Sweden: Until visiting, I never knew that a place like Norden’s Ark existed. Nordens Ark is no zoo – it is a very special non-profit foundation that focuses on the conservation of endangered animals. Many miles from civilisation, Nordens Ark breeding conservation centre is situated in the heart of bohuslan on the Swedish west coast. They own a huge expanse of natural countryside where they maintain up to 80 species of endangered animals. The enclosures for many of the animals, which include many european species and others which suit the climate, are literally fenced off areas of forest and mountains. It is absolutely incredible to be there and see the likes of snow leopard, wolf, amur tigers, lynx and many old nordic native breeds in such surroundings.  Apart from the mammals, they are also breeding and releasing many native amphibians such as Natterjacks and green toads (pictured). I would just like to say a big thanks to Claes Andren,  their Scientific Director for inviting me to experience Norden’s Ark and also Kristofer and all the staff who made my visit so memorable. I look forward to working with you in the future. For anyone visiting Sweden, I would highly recommend visiting and partaking in some of the wonderful activities on offer: http://www.nordensark.se/en/konferens-hotell/aktiviteter/      

Nordens Ark: http://www.nordensark.se/en/  

To watch some video clips of my visit to Norway and Sweden that relate to the above, please see the ‘LIVE’ section at the top of the page.

Fire-bellied Toad conservation

Today I met Lene Rasmussen, a really committed Danish amphibian conservationist. She is heading a conservation initiative for Fire-bellied Toads (Bombina bombina) on behalf of Copenhagen Zoo, which includes raising tadpoles in captivity at the Zoo and then releasing the young into original habitat. Working with colleagues, she has reared and released over 1000 of the native amphibians this year alone. I was shown around the Zoo’s amphibian collection by Lars Jensen, a very experienced reptile and amphibian keeper who has been working at the Zoo for over 7 years. In this video Lars explains how they raise young toads, including Fire-bellies and Natterjacks. To see the other amphibians maintained behind the scenes at Copenhagen Zoo, check out the ‘Live’ section for more footage!

See: http://www.life-bombina.de/index.php?id=18&L=3

Rainforest Exhibition at Copenhagen Museum

Today I visited a really wonderful exhibition at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen that focuses on several tribes of indians from Venezuela. It was absolutely brilliant to see the way they had integrated the objects with the back-lit graphic panels and other visual, audio, and super interactive displays, it was a sensory feast! I would urge anyone visiting Denmark to go and see the ‘Indians of the Rainforest’ exhibition before it finishes at the end of February next year. I believe it’s a travelling exhibition, but am not sure where it goes next, so keep your ears open for the chance to see it in the future. Here is a short video clip I filmed which covers a fraction of the exhibition but gives a flavour of just how amazing this vibrant labyrinth is.

See: http://www.natmus.dk/sw67640.asp

Visit to Scandinavia

For the next week or so I will be in Scandinavia, visiting Denmark to lecture at an amphibian meeting at the University of Copenhagen, and also travelling to the wonderful Norden’s Ark in Sweden to discuss amphibian conservation. I hope to report back directly via video on our ‘Live’ page,  so anyone who might like see or hear of a specific thing of interest please let me know I’ll be more than happy to oblige.  The Nordic amphibian meeting, which was established 6 years ago by Soren Werther and others from the Swedish Dendrobate Society, attracts herpetologists from all over Scandinavia. I know we get quite a few Scandinavian visitors to the blog, and for those who are going to the meeting in Copenhagen, I very much look forward to meeting you.  

Nordic amphibian meeting: http://www.nhf.dk/nhf/index.php

Norden’s Ark: http://www.nordensark.se/en/about-nordens-ark/

Valley School visit

I just wanted to mention a word or two about a wonderful teaching session that’s taken place at the museum, it was brilliant. We had children visit us again from Valley School in Stockport, which is a special school for children with severe and complex learning and physical dificulties. Having different activities tailored to meet their individual  needs, the children really seemed to get alot from the live animal session. I did too, for conducting it thoroughly made my day. I would also like to thank our Steve Devine for responding so quickly and making time to catch some magic moments with his camera (picture right). Cheers Steve, and thanks alot for all your help with the filming and the blog in general.