The UWI Zoology Museum's contribution to T&T Herpetology

UWIZM logo. Image courtesy the Department of Life Sciences, UWI

This post is dedicated to the outgoing  University of the West Indies Zoology Museum (UWIZM) Curator: Mike Rutherford.

Mike is on his way back home to Scotland having spent a decade in Trinidad and Tobago. During that time, he made great strides to enhancing the University's zoological collection. The importance of the work he did with zoological collections cannot be understated more than enough. And of course, some of the zoological records in the museum include amphibians and reptiles. The following are five out of many positive contributions UWIZM has made to T&T Herpetology.

1)
The UWIZM logo is of the Trinidad golden tree frog! A great way to raise awareness about this Critically Endangered frog.

2)
There are hundreds of amphibian specimens and over a thousand reptile specimens in UWIZM. Specimens date back to the 1950s and 1960s, and even some before then! Some of these can of course be seen on the global biodiversity information facility website (gbif.org). Having these records on GBIF is another way to improve biodiversity data accessibility in Trinidad and Tobago, something we all need to strive for to help tackle conservation issues that affect us all.

3)
Through a great collaborative relationship with visiting herpetologists from across the world, Mike has enabled research to be published using UWIZM specimens. This of course gives good publicity to The UWI and can be a way to strengthen university collaboration.

4)
Whenever UWIZM would have outreach events, more often than not some of the specimens on display would be reptiles and amphibians. Using reptile and amphibian specimens is another way to educate people about their importance not only to ecosystems and the environment but to people. This is especially the case when some people are either afraid of snakes, frogs and lizards, or out right despise them! The hope here is that people can take a couple minutes to hear about them and why they are important and hopefully one by one, people are more inclined to tolerating them at the very least.

5)
A few years ago, Mike and UWIZM organized the very first Bioblitz in the country. It offered a fantastic opportunity for passionate persons to join in with experts and learn more about the species they love. One example was with myself. It was at the first Bioblitz I got to meet John Murphy, an experienced herpetologist. From there, I never looked back and took on herpetology as my passion.

We hope the UWIZM will continue to prosper in the near to long term future for herpetofauna conservation and education for generations to come!

Thanks, Mike!

Mike speaking to school children about some specimens from UWIZM. Photo courtesy Department of Life Sciences