Developing its educational and conservational use, the live collection  was soon expanded to include a wide variety of unusual and rare frogs. Our first exhibition to start raising public awareness specifically about these wonderful creatures was in 1997 and was called ‘The World of Frogs’ . It was a huge success, and featured many species from around the world, including the Horned Frog, who is aptly named Sumo.

Thinking back, I remember cleaning the inside of the Horned frog exhibit one day when the frog lunged forward and grabbed hold of my thumb in it’s strong jaws. Horned frogs have huge mouths and I can remember how painful and powerful the bite was to this day. The trouble was that I couldn’t actually get the frog off my thumb, and I was surrounded by schoolkids. One little boy asked calmly, as blood ran down my hand, – does it hurt mister? Of course I just grinned and beared it .   

Anyway, after the exhibition ended Stapeley Water Gardens wanted to feature the exhibition and Sumo was also provided to them on loan. Last year Sumo also featured in the British Museum’s Darwin Exhibition. With the unfortunate closure of Stapeley Water Gardens, Sumo has now returned to Manchester and resumed pride of place in our Vivarium. I have to say that am ever so grateful to all those who have looked after Sumo over the years and would particularly like to thank Valda Williams from Stapeley for her support.   

Although Sumo is at least 30 years old, we still have no real idea how old Sumo actually is. However,  Sumo  looks as healthy and as bright as ever – and is still a huge star of the Vivarium,

and it seems now of Manchester…….

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1326556_return_of_sumo_the_giant_frog_who_shows_no_sign_of_croaking

Not all the placement opportunities allow students to work in such exotic locations, but if you are a zoology student that is interested in taking time out to conduct a small research project, get valuable work experience with exotics animals,  and are passionate about supporting conservation, you might like to get in touch (please contact either myself or Jane Thomas our Placement Officer). At the moment we are working to fill several voluntary research opportunities that have become available,    which have placements that range from spending a month working with  Endangered frogs in Spain next summer to working for up to year on a new Critically Endangered tropical frog conservation project being developed in collaboration with another reputable institution in London.

Providing different personal development opportunities for our Vivarium staff is also something that is extremely important. Only last week, Adam, one of my assistants (Pictured with Snow Leopard), returned from his exchange visit to Norden’s Ark in Sweden, a fantastic place where he had an amazing experience learning from staff and also sharing his knowledge. We are extremely grateful for their collaboration and support in providing this wonderful opportunity and look forward to welcoming Kristofer from Norden’s Ark when he comes to Manchester. To see video clips of Adam’s visit, including Norden’s displays of mossy frogs, Mountain chickens, and native Swedish herp conservation, please see his section of the blog.

Although I am not working this particular weekend, I just wanted to highlight a couple of things being offered by ourselves and other local Museum’s that should be well worth a visit, particularly for  families with children that are interested in nature and conservation.

The first is a special amphibian-related afternoon on Saturday (14th) at Liverpool Museum, where  there will be a number of fun frog activities in their natural history centre from 1pm – 4pm,  including badge making, mask making, drawing and colouring, frog puppets, and face painting for the kids. There will also be 3 live frog displays on show and during the day Phil Lewis will be sharing his experience with frogs in a talk to highlight the plight of amphibians and the need to support the Amphibian Ark. 

For further details please contact World Museum Liverpool directly and see: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/events/wildwildworld_events.aspx#eventID385

Also on Saturday, a colleague here at Manchester Museum who is a professional entomologist (and who’s another Phil, Phil Rispin), will be running a butterfly-related afternoon in Victoria Park, Stretford, Manchester, between 1-3pm. This free event  is suitable for all ages and all equipment is being provided. All you need to do is go spot and identify butterflies in the park. Phil will be taking along museum specimens of all the species you could potentially come across for reference and will also be joined by Don Stenhouse, the Keeper of Entomology from Bolton Museum, who is top beetle expert. Don will be running a minibeast session, so even if the weather is not quite so good for butterflies there will still be plenty of insects to look for and discover. Meeting at the community building,  there will also be free refreshments kindly provided by the Friends of Victoria Park, Stretford (http://fovps.org.uk/)

Most people don’t realise that most British butterfly species are in decline, but I guess, like amphibians, their sensitivity to environmental change makes them very susceptible. To find out more about butterfly and moth conservation why not check out: http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/

……and at 3pm today the female shown in the above video laid eggs!!!:

Whist on the subject, I would also like to say a big thanks to the following schools who visited the Manchester Museum over the past couple of months. The schools listed below brought in nearly 600 chidren to have  special sessions with the live animals and I have to say its been a real pleasure to teach such great kids.            THANK YOU!! 

William Hulme Grammar, Manchester  

St Marys C of E, Droylsden

Cornerstones, Warrington

Ince St Mary Primary, Wigan

St Pauls school, Rawtenstall

The Meadows, Blackley

Barlow Hall Nursery, Chorlton

Our Lady’s Sports College, Blackley

St Edwards Primary, Rochdale

Swinton High School, Manchester

St Edmonds Arrowsmith, Wigan

Meanwood Primary, Rochdale   

New Moston Primary, Manchester

St Mary’s, Burnley

Matt, Adam, Alicia and I will be in our discovery Centre from 11-4  with a host of our favourite reptiles, amphibians, and spiders for everyone to see. It would be great to meet you if you would like to come along and say hello and see some of our animals. Also, in the afternoon, I will giving two interactive talks between 1.30 and 2.30 on the diversity of reptiles and amphibians where I will be using a wide range of unusual animals from our Vivarium collection, including unusual snakes, lizards and frogs. During each talk you will be able to get up close to the animals and learn all about the many ways they have adapted to survive. All the talks and all the events we are putting on are completely free, so you just need to come along early and book on the day.

For further details, please see: http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/may/

If you can’t make it on Saturday, you can always still make a pledge International Year of Biodiversity or perhaps arrange to come visit us one afternoon during the week. On weekdays we also now have a special handling table in the Vivarium between 3 and 4 in the afternoon (pictured). The featured animals change on a daily basis and it is proving very popular with all our visitors. One of us is always on hand to answer any questions and, together with one of the voluteers from the Museum’s Volunteer Scheme, you can safely get close to some of our coolest  creatures.

In the answer, I refered to the Golden Poison-dart frog, Phyllobates terribilis,  the most dangerous of all amphibians and a frog with enough poisonous toxins in its skin to kill 20,000 mice or 8-10 humans. Is this frog dangerous? I should say so!

This species, which hails from a small area in Colombia is the most toxic frog known - wild-caught specimens are definately as deadly as any venomous snake. The frog, first described in the 1970′s, is quite large for a poison-dart frog, growing up to 50mm. The toxins in its skin, which it develops from it’s insect diet, acts as supreme defence from predators and is also used by indigenous people to treat the darts they use in hunting and warfare. Most other species of poison-dart frog are much less dangerous than P.terribilis, but there are similar species which live within the same area of South America which are also extremely toxic, such as P. bicolor and P.aurotaenia. These related species also look extremely alike.

In the Vivarium at the Manchester Museum we have integrated several collections, and one particular display highlights the use of poison-dart frogs by humans.  In the clip below you can see show how we display P.terribilis/bicolor specimens from our live collection alongside artefacts from our ethnology collection, and listen to Stephen Welsh, our Curator of Anthropology, clearly explaining how the related artefacts are used.

Stephen also has a great blog focusing on living cultures which you might find of great interest. Check out his latest related post – ‘Darts anyone?’ at: http://mancultural.wordpress.com/

Of course, the answer was yes. Well, I met the teachers and the two young lads at reception and my day started to brighten there and then. Over the next hour or so, I chatted one to one with them and showed them some of the special animals I use for our sessions.  Their excitement and the positive way they reacted was overwhelming. I can honestly say that I have never had such a rewarding teaching session than with those two young boys. It was pure Magic. I drove home that day heartfilled and whatever cloud had been there was totally lifted. I never need my faith in nature restoring but it never fails to amaze me the effect appreciating nature can have on people, not just me. This is why I love sharing it, and why I love my job.  Friday brought 70 biologists to teach and boy were they in for some positive teaching from someone buzzing from the day before!

Talking of good energy, did you know that one of the easiest and most productive ways to go green is to change the supplier of your energy? Check out http://www.goodenergy.co.uk/. Why not think about changing today, its so simple  – and then don’t forget to pass on the info to all your friends! 

Photos from biology student teaching on Friday Click Here

To see further images from these and other Student practicals please see ‘Undergraduate sessions 2010′ under Teaching at the top of the page.