Mr Hein Van Grouw

Since June 2009 I’m one of the five NHM’s Bird Curators based at Tring. Before that I worked for nearly 12 years in the bird collections, and later also the mammal collections of Naturalis, the Dutch Natural History Museum, nowadays called Naturalis Dutch Centre for Biodiversity. Some of the larger projects I was involved in were:

1998 - 1999: Supervised move of entire bird collections to new premises. Personally responsible for the packaging, removal and systematic installation of the entire collection of bird skins and mounted specimens to new premises. Managed a team of seven to assist me in the physical work. (2 years).

2005 - 2006: Project manager: digital registration of Passeriformes collection. Supervised a team of project workers to develop and populate a database, including digital images, of entire Passeriformes skin collection, (approx. 75,000 specimens). Wrote a collections manual to establish a protocol for future projects. (2 years).

2005 -2009: Whale strandings coordinator. Managed team responsible for the retrieval, data collection and preparation of all Cetacean specimens along the Dutch coast. Principal liaison contact with media regarding Cetacean strandings. Responsible for the availability of all strandings data online; see www.walvisstrandingen.nl

I am practicing taxidermy since 1981 and experienced in the preparation of study skins, mounted specimen, skeleton preparation and specimen repair, both birds and mammals.

My ongoing research is into the occurrence of colour aberration in wild birds. Since 1998 I am undertaking a systematic search of scientific bird collections to identify and database all aberrant specimens with identifying the range of aberrations occurring in the various taxa as a goal. Within that research I am also interested in examples of (extinct) populations in which certain heritable colour aberrations are settled in well, e.g. the 'White-speckled Ravens' from the Faroe Islands. (See also Publications).

My interest in colour aberrations I have in common with Lord Lionel Walter, Second Baron Rothschild (1868-1937). He is famous for his passionate interest in ornithology and for having assembled a scientific collection of about 300,000 bird skins and mounts. Less well known was his interest in bird hybrids and colour aberrations for all of which he collected an impressive number of examples. However, how many is unknown as Rothschild’s collection was not catalogued. Also, his collection is divided between the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Natural History Museum. Currently I am doing an inventory to estimate the number of aberrant birds present in his collection and to look into their history.