[NHCOLL-L:5270] RE: life animals

[John Grehan]

For example, I would consider carpet beetles (Dermestidae) to be high
risk as if any got out of a colony (not that we have one) they could
readily get into collection areas and cause damage. Fairly high risk
would be hide beetles Dermestes maculates. They could conceivably be a
risk to collections if some got out. But they are less mobile than
carpet beetles and it is feasible to keep them in containers that are
sealed. I suppose mealworms could attack organic materials if they got
out and if they made it to a suitable collection. In reality I would be
doubtful, and again they are fairly easy to contain. There are
cockroaches and there are cockroaches. Some such as brown bandits I
would never consider, and the American cockroach would also be in that
category. But there are other cockroach species that appear to be of no
real threat to collections at all. We have field crickets and again
because they could conceivably feed on dead organic material (at least
plants) they might be regarded as having some potential threat level.
Honey bees are not a threat to collections, but if there were some kind
of accident where they escaped their display hive within the building
then there would be a health issue.

 

So in response to a request by other museum staff, I proposed a relative
threat level categories of 0 = no threat, 1 = potential threat (in the
case of collections, that they could conceivable cause damage to
biological materials if they managed to get to the collections). The
only level 2 was for health, and in this case for honey bees. I was then
asked if there were any standard represented by other institutions. Not
to my knowledge, but I thought I would ask. So I am interested to know
whether any other institution has ever thought it worthwhile to make up
and implement such categories. I do know that the Smithsonian does not.

 

John Grehan

 

________________________________

From: Bryant, James [mailto:JBRYANT at riversideca.gov] 
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 11:34 AM
To: John Grehan; NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: life animals 

 

Interesting: "actual or potential threat to the collections or to public
health". Could you be more specific? We have a small living collection
here in Riverside, but nothing that fits these criteria except in the
broadest sense. When I worked at the Insect Zoo at the Smithsonian, it
was notable that none of the live species we housed ever appeared
outside the exhibit area, even in the adjacent entomology collection
ranges.

 

James M. Bryant

Curator of Natural History

Museum Department, City of Riverside

3580 Mission Inn Avenue

Riverside, CA 92501

(951) 826-5273

(951) 369-4970 FAX

jbryant at riversideca.gov

From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of John Grehan
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 7:18 AM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:5268] life animals 

 

Do any of the institutions on this list that have both live animals
(including both vertebrates and invertebrates) housed in the same
building as biological collections and/or exhibits have any defined
categories of how the live animals are ranked or classified with respect
to their actual or potential threat to the collections or to public
health. I would be very interested to receive copies of such
policies/protocols as we are in the process of assigning threat levels
to the organisms that we have, or may have in the future, at our museum.

 

John Grehan

Dr. John R. Grehan
Director of Science and Research
Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Parkway
Buffalo, NY 14211-1193

email: jgrehan at sciencebuff.org
Phone: (716) 896-5200 ext 372
Fax: (716) 897-6723

Panbiogeography
http://www.sciencebuff.org/biogeography_and_evolutionary_biology.php

Ghost moth research
http://www.sciencebuff.org/systematics_and_evolution_of_hepialdiae.php

Human evolution and the great apes
http://www.sciencebuff.org/human_origin_and_the_great_apes.php

 

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