Mute Swans: More than Just a Pretty Bird

Guest blog by Cathy Hou Editor’s note: Cathy interned with Dr. Dan Brooks, HMNS Curator of Vertebrate Zoology. Her hard work culminated with publication of this article on Mute Swans in our beloved Lone Star state: https://www.hmns.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/SwanEprint.pdf A Mute Swan swims in the lake, white feathers glistening, recognized by its distinctive S-shaped neck. You may […]

Update On Waugh bridge bat colony hit by Hurricane Harvey associated flooding

  By Tim McSweeny and Dan Brooks, Ph.D. Last year Houston was devastated by Hurricane Harvey, with flooding covering streets, bayous and communities throughout Houston after the storm deposited about three feet of rain.  One of the many parts of the city affected by the storm was the colony of Free-tailed bats living under the […]

Sit Down With a Curator: Love in the Animal Kingdom

At the risk of regurgitating clichés, here at HMNS we’ve noticed that something is in the air. No—it’s not the oscillating Houston humidity or the smell of preservation chemicals; it’s the love of Valentine’s Day! Love it, hate it, or just plain ignore it—Valentine’s Day is a day when people can acknowledge their love for […]

Lamintating Snake Skins

 A Fressssssh Start To The New Year! This year many people will be rummaging through their closets, discarding old clothing in exchange for a fresh, new look. Our snakes have done sort of the same thing, as many of them have recently shed!  This delicate, dermatological discard still retains the pattern of the animal it […]

Return to Paraguay: Conserving the Taguá, a Living Fossil

In 1972, mammalogist Ralph Wetzel and colleagues were studying armadillo ectoparasites in the Paraguayan Chaco when they came upon a peccary (what we call javelina in Texas) that didn’t look like those already known to science. The result was Catagonus wagneri – the Chacoan peccary, known only from a fossil discovered in 1930 by Argentinian […]

We’d like to introduce you to the four new species of African house bats

Editor’s note: This blog post is a summation of “New Species of Scotophilus (Chiroptera: Vespertiliondae) from Sub-Saharan Africa,” written by HMNS Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Daniel M. Brooks and John W. Bickham, and published as a monograph in the Occasional Papers of the Museum at Texas Tech University. Sub-Saharan Africa is a hotbed of biological diversity. A […]


Editor's Picks The Real Moon Hoax That You Haven’t Heard Of Is Darwin relevant today? Oh The Hermannity! The Story of Houston’s Most Beautiful Green Space A Few Member Benefits Most HMNS Members Don’t Know About What The Loss Of The Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro’s Collections Means To The World What Is The Deal With Brontosaurus?!
 

Stay in the know.
Join our mailing list.