Nathan Kraucunas
LORE
The birds of the American tropics are beautiful, interesting and numerous. In the rain forest of Costa Rica there are 827 species of birds, compared to Wisconsin's 308 species, many of which migrate to the tropics during our long cold winter.
(1996)
Nathan Kraukunas
LORE
In 1983, the museum's former director Dr. Kenneth Starr called me into his office and asked me to locate a specimen of an American Robin, which may be in the Bird Collection of the Vertebrate Zoology Section. He had just returned from a Muses luncheon and had a conversation with one of the ladies at the luncheon, Miss Emma Pagel. Miss Pagel told Dr. Starr that as a young girl of 11, she had found a dead robin on her way home from school.
(1996)
The Milwaukee Public Museum is not known for its fish collection, but should be. This valuable scientific resource comprises about 500,000 catalogued specimens with a broad taxonomic and biogeographic scope. Over a dozen countries and 26 U.S. states are represented.
Greg Septon
LORE
It was just another rainy fall day in Milwaukee but when the phone rang with the news of Owen Gromme's death, time, for a moment, seemed to stand still. It wasn't a great surprise. Most of us had known of his long illness. But still, it was a shock, a shock which signaled the end of an era.
(1996)
Nicola M. Anthony, Richard Bautz, Elizabeth Spencer, and Theodore Garland, Jr.
Milwaukee Public Museum Contributions in Biology and Geology. N. 98: 1-26.
(November 20, 2003)
Andy Larson
LORE
A year ago this past May I was banding birds at Riveredge. It was near the peak of the annual spring migration and the trees bordering the river exuded birds. Few, however, flew down into the shrub layer where my mist nets were stretched waiting to intercept any passerby.
(1996)
Robert Henderson
LORE
Tree boas belong to the snake family Bonidae, which also includes pythons, anacondas, and the boa constrictor. Three species of tree boas are recognized: Corallus annulatus, patterned in various shades of brown, occurs from Nicaragua south to Ecuador. Corallus caninus, the spectacular "emerald tree boa," is frequently a vivid green with enamel-white markings, found in the Amazon Basin of Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and the Guianas.
(1996)
Nathan Kraukunas
LORE
The Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius a. acadicus) is the smallest owl in Wisconsin. It is named for its distinctive call, which is said to resemble the sound of a saw being sharpened with a file. this tiny bird of prey is almost exclusively nocturnal and very rarely seen during daylight hours.
(1996)
Randy Mooi
LORE
In actuality, less than 1% of the collections are on public display at any one time. The Museum houses more than four million specimens, of which about 700,000 are fishes!
(1996)
Nathan Kraucunas
LORE
There are over 60 million Americans who feed birds. Over one half-billion dollars each year is spent on bird seed, not to mention the cost of bird feeders, bird identification books and binoculars. Maintaining artificial feeding stations has become a very popular and enjoyable hobby. Birds, with their beauty, songs and ability to fly, give countless hours of pleasure.
(1996)
Gary S. Casper
LORE
Wisconsin offers a harsh climate for reptiles. Bitter cold and snow cover keep most "cold-blooded" creatures out of action for five months of the year. But each spring, with warming sunshine and the first green flush to the landscape, a colorful array of scaled survivors appear. The most abundant of these are the harmless snakes, with 18 species enduring our Wisconsin winters.
(1996)