̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - ̽��ֱ�� Museum of Zoology

Report highlights ̽��ֱ��’s under-researched African collections

ta385 — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 06:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��'s collections include an estimated 350,000 artefacts, alongside natural history specimens and human/ancestral remains, from Africa, according to a new report aiming to promote further research, collaboration and engagement, especially with African scholars and communities. ̽��ֱ��report emphasises that the labour and expertise of countless unnamed African people is hidden in the histories of these collections.

Bird brain from the age of dinosaurs reveals roots of avian intelligence

sc604 — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:20:58 +0000

A ‘one of a kind’ fossil discovery could transform our understanding of how the unique brains and intelligence of modern birds evolved, one of the most enduring mysteries of vertebrate evolution.

Public invited to chat to museum animals in novel AI experiment

jg533 — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 23:14:04 +0000

From Tuesday 15 October, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology is offering visitors a unique experience: the chance to chat with the animals on display – whether skeletal, taxidermy, or extinct.

In a collaboration with the company Nature Perspectives, the Museum’s Assistant Director Jack Ashby has chosen a range of animal specimens to bring back to life using generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Visitors can pose their questions to 13 specimens - including dodo and whale skeletons, a taxidermied red panda, and a preserved cockroach - by scanning QR codes that open a chat-box on their mobile phone. In two-way conversations, which can be voice- or text-based, the specimens will answer as if they are still alive.

This is believed to be the first time a museum has used generative artificial intelligence to enable visitors to chat with objects on display in this way.

By analysing data from the conversations, the team hopes that the month-long experiment will help them learn more about how AI can help the public to better engage with nature, and about the potential for AI in museums. It will also provide the museum with new insights into what visitors really want to know about the specimens on display.

Nature Perspectives uses AI to enable cultural institutions like the Museum of Zoology to engage the public through these unique conversational experiences. ̽��ֱ��company aims to reverse a growing apathy towards biodiversity loss by enabling new ways to engage with the natural world.

“This is an amazing opportunity for people to test out an emerging technology in our inspiring Museum setting, and we also hope to learn something about how our visitors see the animals on display,” said Jack Ashby, Assistant Director of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology.

He added: “Our whole purpose is to get people engaged with the natural world. So we're curious to see whether this will work, and whether chatting to the animals will change people’s attitudes towards them - will the cockroach be better liked, for example, as a result of having its voice heard?”

“By using AI to simulate non-human perspectives, our technology offers a novel way for audiences to connect with the natural world,” said Gal Zanir, co-founder of the company Nature Perspectives, which developed the AI technology for the experience.

He added: “One of the most magical aspects of the simulations is that they’re age-adaptive. For the first time, visitors of all ages will be able to ask the specimens anything they like.”

̽��ֱ��technology brings together all available information on each animal involved – including details particular to the individual specimens such as where they came from and how they were prepared for display in the museum. This is all repackaged from a first-person perspective, so that visitors can experience realistic, meaningful conversations.

̽��ֱ��animals will adjust their tone and language to suit the age of the person they’re talking to. And they’re multi-lingual - speaking over 20 languages including Spanish and Japanese so that visitors can chat in their native languages.

̽��ֱ��team has chosen a range of specimens that include skeletons, taxidermy, models, and whole preserved animals. ̽��ֱ��specimens are: dodo skeleton, narwhal skeleton, brain coral, red admiral butterfly, fin whale skeleton, American cockroach, huia taxidermy (a recently extinct bird from New Zealand), red panda taxidermy, freeze-dried platypus, giant sloth fossil skeleton, giant deer skull and antlers, mallard taxidermy, and Ichthyostega model (an extinct ancestor of all animals with 4 legs).

Nature Perspectives was created by a team of graduates from the ̽��ֱ��’s Masters in Conservation Leadership programme, who noticed that people seem to feel more connected to machines when they can talk to them. This inspired the team to apply the same principle to nature - giving nature a voice to promote its agency and foster deeper, more personal connections between people and the natural world.

“Artificial intelligence is opening up exciting new opportunities to connect people with non-human life, but the impacts need to be carefully studied. I’m delighted to be involved in exploring how the Nature Perspectives pilot affects the way people feel about and understand the species they ‘meet’ in the Museum of Zoology,” said Professor Chris Sandbrook, Director of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Masters in Conservation Leadership programme.

“Enabling museums to engage visitors with the simulated perspectives of exhibits is only the first step for Nature Perspectives. We aim to apply this transformative approach widely, from public engagement and education to scientific research, to representing nature in legal processes, policy-making and beyond," said Zanir.

̽��ֱ��Nature Perspectives AI experiment runs until the end of Dcember 2025.

Specimens in a Cambridge museum will be brought to life through the power of Artificial Intelligence, by a team aiming to strengthen our connection with the natural world and reverse apathy towards biodiversity loss.

This is an amazing opportunity for people to test out an emerging technology in our inspiring Museum setting.

Jack Ashby

Jack Ashby talking to the Museum's fin whale

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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‘Extinct’ snails found breeding in French Polynesia

jg533 — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 23:02:49 +0000

A global conservation effort to reintroduce a tiny snail to the wild is celebrating a momentous milestone: for the first time in 40 years, conservationists have found born-in-the-wild adult Partula tohiveana – meaning the precious molluscs have successfully established themselves in French Polynesia.

This year Cambridge’s Dr Justin Gerlach helped restore over 6,000 of the snails to Moorea, their French Polynesian island home as part of an annual reintroduction of zoo-bred ‘Extinct in the Wild’ and ‘Critically Endangered’ snail species – carried out through collaboration with zoos around the world.

During their work the team found unmarked Partula tohiveana: proof that previously reintroduced snails have successfully bred in the area.

̽��ֱ��momentous discovery means Partula tohiveana can now be considered as established – an incredibly rewarding result for 40 years of dedication and collaboration. Conservationists will now begin the process of downlisting the snails from ‘Extinct-in-the-Wild’ to ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN’s Red List.

Very few species have been reintroduced successfully having been completely extinct in the wild. This is also the very first invertebrate species where this has been achieved.

Ten species and sub-species of the tropical snails, reared at London Zoo, Bristol Zoological Society, Detroit Zoological Society, Marwell Wildlife, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Saint Louis Zoo, Sedgwick County Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo and Zoo Schwerin, travelled more than 15,000km to Tahiti at the beginning of September. Before making the two-day journey to the islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Huahine, the incredibly rare snails, which each measure a tiny 1-2cm in length, were individually counted and marked with a dot of red UV reflective paint. ̽��ֱ��‘snail varnish’ glows under UV torchlight, helping conservationists in the field to spot and monitor the nocturnal snails at night, when they’re most active.

London Zoo’s Senior Curator of Invertebrates, Paul Pearce-Kelly, who leads the Partula conservation programme, said: “Though little, these snails have great cultural, scientific and conservation value. Partula snails have always been part of Polynesia’s rich cultural heritage and play an important role in the ecological health of their forest habitats. They’ve also been studied for over a century for the insights they give into how species evolve in isolated environments. Most recently, they’re providing a valuable conservation model for helping hundreds of endangered island species.”

He added: “This collaborative conservation effort is playing a crucial role in saving these species from extinction. It’s a powerful example of how conservation zoos can combat biodiversity loss. At a time when nature faces unprecedented challenges, these small snails are a symbol of hope for global wildlife.”

Partula snails - also known as Polynesian tree snails - eat decaying plant tissue and fungi, so play an important role in maintaining forest health. Returning these rare snails back to the wild helps to restore the ecological balance in these islands.

Dr Justin Gerlach of Peterhouse, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and an Academic Associate at the ̽��ֱ��'s Museum of Zoology, said: “Discovering wild-born adult snails was a great moment. Very few animal species have been re-established back in the wild so this is a fantastic achievement for the programme – the fruit of a vast amount of work.”

Conservation zoos are working with the French Polynesian Government’s Direction de l’environnement, to save Partula snails from extinction. In the 1980s and early 1990s, these snails faced a critical threat after the invasive rosy wolf snail (Euglandina rosea) was introduced to control the African giant land snail (Lissachatina fulica). Unfortunately, the predatory species targeted the native snails instead, leading to the extinction or near-extinction of many Partula species across the region.

In the early 1990s, the last remaining individuals of several Partula species were rescued by London and Edinburgh Zoos, launching an international conservation breeding programme. This collaboration between 15 zoos cares for 15 species and subspecies, most of which are classified as ‘Extinct-in-the-Wild’. These rescued snails, along with those already being studied at universities in the UK and North America, became the foundation for reintroducing the species back onto their native island homes.

Paul said: “After decades of caring for these species in conservation zoos and working with the Direction de l’environnement to prepare the islands, we started reintroducing Partula snails back into their lowland tropical forests almost 10 years ago. Since then, we’ve reintroduced over 30,000 snails, including 10 Extinct-in-the-Wild species and subspecies, with this year’s release being the largest so far, thanks to our international team and collaborators, including mollusc specialist Dr Justin Gerlach of Peterhouse, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.”

London Zoo’s coordination of the Partula snail reintroduction project is made possible due to funding from supporters including the Players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, who have enabled London Zoo to continue bringing species back from the brink of extinction.

Adapted from a press release by the Zoological Society of London.

A species of tropical tree snail is no longer extinct in the wild following a successful reintroduction project.

Very few animal species have been re-established back in the wild so this is a fantastic achievement for the programme – the fruit of a vast amount of work.

Justin Gerlach

Unmarked Partula tohiveana snail observed in the wild, meaning the species is re-established (c) Paul Pearce-Kelly

Born-in-the-wild unmarked Partula tohiveana snail observed in the wild, meaning the species is re-established (c) Paul Pearce-Kelly

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Australia’s giant lizards help save sheep from being eaten alive

jg533 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 09:00:07 +0000

Heath goannas - a species of giant, scavenging lizard - act as natural clean-up crews by clearing maggot-ridden animal carcasses from the landscape.

How human Aboriginal remains were traded for scientific accolades

jg533 — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:37:03 +0000

Victorian collector traded human Aboriginal remains for scientific accolades, study reveals

̽��ֱ��largest penguin that ever lived

sc604 — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 08:21:23 +0000

Fossil bones from two newly-described penguin species, one of them thought to be the largest penguin to ever live – weighing more than 150 kilograms, more than three times the size of the largest living penguins – have been unearthed in New Zealand.

Bird beak evolved before dinosaur extinction

sc604 — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 15:18:58 +0000

Fossilised fragments of a skeleton, hidden within a rock the size of a grapefruit, have helped upend one of the longest-standing assumptions about the origins of modern birds.