Biodiversity
Monthly Archive: December biod
Many Eyes Make Light Work: ROM Field Botany
Submitted by David Baxter
As student staff in the ROM Botany Section, my summer work has mostly involved sitting in a basement office updating the plant specimen database, and occasionally working with the herbarium specimens themselves. This last week, however, I’ve been in Montana and Washington searching for Crataegus (hawthorn) trees. Quite a change of pace!
Project Guyana – Expedition Update
Hello, this is Stacey Kerr, an Environmental Visual Communication student at the ROM. “Curator’s Corner: Project Guyana” was a huge success this past weekend, showcasing some of the work done by ROM curators on the biodiversity of Guyana. It also afforded us a quick update from Burton Lim, Assistant Curator of Mammals, and my classmate Joshua See, who are currently down in Guyana for the month conducting bat diversity surveys (for more info, see Josh’s last blog post)
Life in Toronto – Rouge Bioblitz 2012
submitted by the ROM Bioblitz Team
Rouge Park Bioblitz
Submitted by Brennan Caverhill, Biodiversity Intern
A rare ‘dragon’ found….
Sometimes, there are really extraordinary stories that are uncovered in our day to day studies; this particular one was submitted by Dr. Henry Frania, an Entomology research associate at the ROM.
SSSSsss… c-CAW! RrAWR! Animal Weekend is Here!
I used to walk through the halls of my high school (yes, high school – I don’t know what was wrong with me either) making animal noises. Not the normal ones like “moo” and “oink”, but the more obscure ones (I guess it’s the hipster in me). For instance, my impression of the Komodo dragon had a sort of snake and bark sound, and the giraffe, since I had no idea what sound they make (do you?) was just, “giraffe, giraffe!”. I pretty much made the sounds up as I went along.
Let’s talk about this
The Friends of the Institute for Contemporary Culture are a group of ROM members with an affinity for the ICC and its activities. The ICC seeks to stimulate “diverse audiences to think creatively, understand and change the world,” and when the FICC committee first came together just under a year ago, we wanted to find new ways to support this intention.
Snakes, Dragons and Spiders, Oh My! Its ROM alive weekend!
Submitted Schmog, resident bearded dragon in the ROM’s live animal room
This weekend the ROM will be hopping with live animals and those who study them!! The Animals are out for you to see and touch and there will be some of my buddies from ROM’s very own Live Room. Come to the ROM for Awesome Animal Weekend and it will be like your very own Discovery program, right in front of your eyes! Get up and close to my bud Java, the respectable Bob the ball python, and crazy Zip!! and many more!!
More Butterfly Migrants arrive
A second impressive ‘wave’ of butterfly migration has been taking place the last few days. More Red Admirals have been joined by some other migratory butterflies: Painted Lady (saw one in the schoolyard yesterday), American Lady, Common Buckeye, Question Mark, Mourning Cloak, Cloudless Sulphur, Gray Hairstreak, Variegated Fritillary, Little Yellow, American Snout, Dainty Sulphur, etc. The list is a long one. The occasional Monarch has already been recorded as well!
An Interview with Plasticine Artist Barbara Reid
Sunday April 22 is Earth Day, but we’re celebrating Mother Earth all weekend! We’re super excited to welcome Barbara Reid, the popular children’s author and plasticine artist extraordinaire, as a special guest this weekend. She is leading workshops for kids, teaching families how to make their own plasticine art (Saturday and Sunday at 11:30 am and 2 pm). She will also be signing her new book Picture a Tree and you can see a display of some of Ms.