Ines G. Moran
Wildlife Bioacoustics Analytics
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is a Natural History Museum found at the heart of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. It is not only a great place to visit, but also a great place to volunteer, work and learn.
Visit http://www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca
The Cowan Tetrapod Collection
I had the chance to work with fabulous supervisors, the Curators of the Avian and Mammal Cowan Tetrapod Collections, Ildiko Szabo and Chris Stinson, who gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge on museums while finishing my undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Being part of this team has been a very rich experience that allowed me to dive into the vast world of life biodiversity. My work for the Cowan Tetrapod Collection ranged from preparing museum skins, labelling bones, taking care of dermestid beetles, collecting DNA samples, organizing data, and working on the photo digitalization of exotic species.
The Cowan Tetrapod curators, Chris Stinson (left), Ildiko Szabo (right), and the curator assistants under training Cynthia Lung (bottom left), and Ines Moran (bottom right).
Some of my work at the museum
Comparative Anatomy Collection from the Cowan Tetrapod Collection.
Cleaned bones of a Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens).
Taxodermic skin of a Coast Mole (Scapanus orarius).
Digitilization photograph of a Red-shouldered Macaw (Diopsittaca nobilis).
Cleaned eggs of various species of Pheasants (Elliot Pheasant, Copper pheasant, etc).
Cowan Tetrapod Collection Digitilization Project
With more than 40,000 specimens, 2,500 local and exotic species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, and few extinct species, the Cowan Tetrapod Collection is one of the many marvels of British Columbia. Members of the Cowan Tetrapod Collection has worked on a digitalization project to document its entire collection to make it accessible to the public. This will ensure the digital archiving of irreplaceable specimens. Moreover, digital images accessible online will increase the accessibility of the collection to students, researchers, and citizen scientists around the world.
The photography station (as shown in the left picture) was set up to produce high-quality colour balanced photographs for the Cowan Tetrapod collection database.
Cowan Tetrapod Collection Photography station