Allison Ruiters 17-20 Oct 2017 Founded on July 23rd 1887 Open to - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Natural Science Collections Facility Forum Allison Ruiters 17-20 Oct 2017 Founded on July 23rd 1887 Open to the public 363 days a year Admission is free. Average of 145 000 visitors per year City Hall galleries DNSM City Hall 2200 m 2
Natural Science Collections Facility Forum 17-20 Oct 2017
DNSM City Hall 2200 m2
DNSM Research Centre 1350 m2
The DNSM is one of the smallest of South Africa’s natural science museums and is the only one that falls under local government – eThekwini Municipality.
Total number of posts: 29 Permanent post filled: 21 Seconded staff (Librarian): 1 Volunteers (Honoraria paid by eThekwini Municipality): 20-25 Volunteers (Honoraria paid by DNSM trust): 2
COLLECTION SUBCOLLECTIONS ACCESSIONED INVENTORIED DATABASED NUMBER RESEARCH Entomology Yes; various orders of insects YES YES YES 143,363 Ornithology Yes; study skin collection, egg collection, wet collection YES YES YES 39,198 Mammalogy Yes; dry collection and wet collection, small mammals, large mammals YES YES YES 15,118 ‘ORPHAN’ Palaeontology Yes; marine inverts & vertebrates YES YES YES 34,147 Malacology No YES YES YES 5,207 Herpetology Yes; dry collection and wet collection YES YES YES 3,208 Arachnids No YES YES YES 733 Ichthyology No YES YES YES 375 Echinoderms No YES YES YES
36
241,385
inaccessible information critical for improved service delivery
Difficulties in procuring specialist equipment & consumables; Protracted tender process
research & technical staff
CURATOR Kirstin Williams [2005 to present] TECHNICAL ASSISTANT Natasha Govender COLLECTION SIZE 143,363 1° GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE South / southern Africa NUMBER OF TYPES (incl. paratypes) 871 NUMBER OF SPP REPRESENTED BY TYPES 448 NUMBER OF SPECIES 12,806 IMPORTANT SUB-COLLECTIONS Migdoll and Zwart butterfly collections GROWTH (10 YEAR PERIOD) 2% OLDEST SPECIMEN Coleoptera [1897] VISITORS / LOANS PER ANNUM 6
Calliphorid blowflies
Garden
CURATOR David Allan [1996 to present] TECHNICAL ASSISTANT Mmatjie Mashao COLLECTION SIZE 39,198 1° GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE southern Africa NUMBER OF TYPES (incl. paratypes) 1 holotype, 166 subspp types +500 paratypes NUMBER OF SPP REPRESENTED BY TYPES 144 NUMBER OF SPECIES 646 IMPORTANT SUB-COLLECTIONS Ivor Browning, Bill Barnes & Alan Connell egg collections Bill Howells raptor study skins GROWTH (10 YEAR PERIOD) 2% OLDEST SPECIMEN Ostrich egg [1860] VISITORS / LOANS PER ANNUM 15 - 20
study skins of best-practice standard – it’s a tricky business!
in the Bird Room to acceptable museum standards.
1)Producing a catalogue of avian type specimens (largely subspecies holotypes and paratypes) in the Durban Natural Science Museum. 2) A review of all museum (Durban Natural Science Museum and elsewhere) specimen material of pelagic seabirds collected in KwaZulu-Natal as part of a larger review of these birds in KwaZulu- Natal waters.
CURATOR Leigh Richards [2010 to present] TECHNICAL ASSISTANT Zamawelase Mwelase COLLECTION SIZE 15,118 + 2100 KZN Museum specimens 1° GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE southern Africa NUMBER OF TYPES (incl. paratypes) 5 holotypes 31 paratypes NUMBER OF SPP REPRESENTED BY TYPES 6 NUMBER OF SPECIES 438 IMPORTANT SUB-COLLECTIONS West African bats, Southern African vlei rats GROWTH (10 YEAR PERIOD) 3.5% [150 - 500 accessions p.a.] OLDEST SPECIMEN Duck-billed platypus skin [1897] LOANS PER ANNUM 12 - 15
collections under care (i.e. internal audits, GRAP 103) [herpetology, ichthyology, palaeontology]
problem with flat skins
equipment and consumables
1) Review of the biogeography of small mammals in EKZNW PAs – surveys and collating specimen occurrence data [NSM field volunteer programme & MSc student project] 2) Surveys of mammalian assemblages of Eastern Cape forests – surveys and collating specimen occurrence data [FBIP large project & PhD student project] 3) Southern African and West African Bat diversity – cranial morphometry 4) Genetic and morphometric variation in Tadarida aegyptiaca (Chiroptera: Molossidae) across southern Africa [PhD student project] 5 & 6) Comparative phylogeography of Lemniscomys rosalia and associated ectoparasites from southern Africa & morphometric variation [Msc & BSC Hons student projects] 7) Phylogeography of South African aardwolf populations [BSc Hons project]