A passion for nature conservation, plant sciences and entomology has triggered the production of over a thousand scientific papers by Miriam Rothschild, her father, Charles, and uncle, Walter.
The remarkable collections were once the private passion of its founder, Lionel Walter Rothschild .
A favourite animal of Rothschild's was the zebra. The Museum has all known species of zebra on display.
Walter kept many unusual pets in the grounds of the Museum including zebras, a tame wolf, rheas, emus, a dingo, kangaroos, kiwis, cassowaries and giant tortoises.
He even rented the entire island of Aldabra, in the Indian Ocean, for 10 years to allow the island's giant tortoise population to recover from over-hunting.
Walter Rothschild (1868-1937) assembled the largest natural history collection ever made by one person. He charmed royalty with his zebra-drawn carriage, kept giant tortoises as pets and published around 1200 books and papers over his lifetime. Yet his personal life remains shrouded in mystery. Who was Lionel Walter, second Baron Rothschild, and how did he contribute to science?
One such conservation venture was the protection of the giant Aldabra tortoise. Second in size to the Galapagos tortoise, this species was threatened by plans for a permanent human settlement on Aldabra, a small coral island in the Seychelles. A letter highlighting the imminent extermination of these tortoises was sent by Charles Darwin and others to the Government of Mauritius. Hearing of the threat, Rothschild decided to rent the island to protect the breeding tortoise population.
At the age of 7, he has a vision of creation a natural history museum.
At the age of 14, I had a similar vision.
What I had in mind, later became the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
I first saw this museum in a building, called Altantis Unlimited.
I am going to be in touch with this philanthropic family.
I sense they will help me with ideas I have for heirloom
organic seed saving.
Outside Magazine, June 2006
Dispatches: Exploration
On Top of the World
Knocking off adventure firsts is nothing to scoff at. But David de Rothschild plans to use his far-flung expeditions for something else entirely.
VOYAGE OF THE PLASTIKI,
Oh, now I remember.
This is a friend of William Spear,
my ally.
Alert Webmaster
