Zoologist makes his Mark on museum life (From This is Hampshire)

Zoologist makes his Mark on museum life

12:41pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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A ZOOLOGIST from Basingstoke will be educating the nation in a behind-the-scenes look at one of the UK’s most prized museum collections.

Mark Carwardine, 51, learned about re-greening in Mauritius and journeyed to Sweden to investigate decomposing whales as part of BBC’s new Museum of Life programme, which starts tonight at 8pm on BBC2.

Mr Carwardine, who grew up in Crossborough Hill and attended The Vyne Community School and Queen Mary’s College, also explored endless shelves filled with weird and wonderful specimens at the Natural History Museum in London, where the six-part series is based.

The zoologist, who now lives in Bristol, said: “The series uses the museum as a window to wildlife of the world and it’s amazing, there’s more stuff behind-the-scenes than on public display.

“There are 70 million specimens in the museum so the choice of subject is phenomenal and there are 350 scientists there doing some amazing research work, so we learn what new species they are discovering.”

Mr Carwardine is one of five presenters on the series, which took about 15 months to film.

He looked at how the museum’s work is being used to help re-green Mauritius after the damage caused by the timber and sugar cane industries and looked at the creatures that feed off decomposing whales after they die and sink to the seabed.

He said: “There’s a whole world of invertebrates eating the whalebones and flesh, so we have a look at them and discovered several new species, including the fantastic snot flower worm!

“I did a lot of work in the museum as well. When filming there’s a lot of waiting so I was rummaging around in cupboards and there’s all sorts of stuff that’s never been studied.

“There’s miles of shelving with the biggest jars and bottles and corridors that are stuffed full of things. It’s one of the greatest collections in the world.”

The conservationist, who co-presented the six-part series Last Chance to See about endangered species with Stephen Fry last year, is also chairman of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. As part of this role he is spending this week going through thousands of entries to pick 2010’s winners.

A busy man, Mr Carwardine – who spends up to eight months a year travelling – is working on some one-off Last Chance to See specials with Stephen Fry and writing a book about endangered animals and another about wildlife photography.