With Madagascar containing nearly two-third’s of the world’s chameleon species, Christopher Raxworthy, Associate Curator of Herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, recently embarked on an expedition to the island in search of these special lizards. His hope was to track down the lined-chameleon in order to further study speciation on Madagascar.

Having recently returned from Madagascar, Raxworthy brought back video footage of his research trip to give everyone a glimpse into his studies and what life is like for scientists in the field, including camping in remote villages, searching for specimens in the jungle and traversing the varied island landscape.

While Raxworthy’s recent findings must remain in Madagascar until the end of this current collection season, once he has the chameleon specimens at the Museum his work to classify and study the DNA will begin.

I produced/edited this video for the American Museum of Natural History on March 5, 2010.

In 1909 the American Museum of Natural History’s Herbert Lang and James Chapin embarked on a scientific expedition to the northeastern Belgian Congo. Their trip would ultimately last five and a half years yielding significant zoological and anthropological findings for the museum.

Exactly 100 years later another museum scientist, Dr. Mark Siddall, embarked on an expedition to the neighboring Rwanda. As a curator of invertebrate zoology he travelled to Rwanda in search of leeches — an animal that Lang and Chapin brought back amongst their original findings. Siddall’s research focuses on various aspects of leeches including the compound allowing them to stop blood from clotting and their DNA. In total he collected five distinct species of leeches on this latest trip.

Watch as Siddall traverses Rwanda’s rugged landscape and interacts with the local population in search of the curious blood sucking creatures.

Produced for the American Museum of Natural History on August 31, 2009.