VISIT BY NICOLETTE AND NICHOLAS ARENDS TO SEE THE CARPITALPA ARENDSI HOLOTYPE
By: Teresa Kearney: Curator – DITSONG: National Museum of Natural History
Left to right, Linda Kubeka (collection attendant), with Nicolette and Nicholas Arends, viewing the holotype of Carpitalpa arendsi.
Nicholas Arends and his daughter, Nicolette, recently visited the small mammal section at DITSONG: National Museum of Natural History to see the Carpitalpa arendsi holotype. Carpitalpa arendsi is a golden mole. A holotype is the specimen linked to the scientific description when a new name is published. It is the real evidence for future reference for what the name is. You may have noticed a similarity in the golden mole’s species name and the surname of Nicholas and Nicolette. It’s a clue that reveals their interest in this specific holotype.
It was collected on 26 January 1951 at Punge Falls in Zimbabwe by their father / grandfather, Nicholas Arends. In addition to collecting the golden mole, he also prepared it for further study by creating a study skin, as well as cleaning the skull, mandible and post-cranial skeleton.
Study skin of the holotype of Carpitalpa arendsi prepared by Nicholas Arends.
By preparing the specimen in this way, Nicholas enabled a comparison with other material in the process of identifying what it was. At that time Nicholas Arends was the skinner and taxidermist at the Amathole Museum in Qonce (formerly King Williams Town) in the Eastern Cape [https://www.facebook.com/AmatholeMuseum/posts/didyouknow-mr-nicholas-p-arends-collector-skinner-taxidermist-at-the-amathole-mu/788948119923150/
https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=788948119923150&id=100064239061296]. The trip to Zimbabwe in 1951 was a collecting expedition sponsored and led by Bernard Carp (1901-1966; naturalist and Cape Town based businessman). Also on the expedition was the first curator of the newly established Department of Mammals at DITSONG: National Museum of Natural History, Dr B.G. Lundholm. Although Dr Lundholm did not work for much longer at the Museum, he did manage to publish in 1955, assisted by the next curator, an article titled “Descriptions of new mammals” in the Museum’s journal. On page 285 of this publication there is the description of a new species of golden mole based on the specimen that Nicholas Arends caught and prepared and which is named after him – Carpitalpa arendsi.
It was a privilege for the section staff to see the interest paid by Nicholas Arends’ son and granddaughter to the holotype bearing their family name and honoring the important contribution of the collector and taxidermist. It was fascinating, albeit tough, to learn about the discriminatory treatment Nicholas Arends senior endured as the taxidermist at the Amathole Museum in view of the colonial past and the apartheid system at that time. Especially, given his valuable contribution to many other expeditions in southern Africa [Hunting for Museums*: Journal of Southern African Studies: Vol 41, No 3 (tandfonline.com)].
While some of Nicholas Arends senior’s stories were told by him in the book “Trapping safaris” [TRAPPING SAFARIS. By Nicholas P. Arends (The Trapper) and L.M.D. Stopforth, M.A., D.Litt., who recorded the memories. by Arends (Nicholas P). Stopforth (L.M.D.).: Signed by Author(s) | Coch-y-Bonddu Books Ltd (abebooks.com)], his son is currently working on a book about his father’s life, telling more of the mostly untold history of the important, but often unrecognized, role of taxidermy and specimen preparation, which forms the basis for the more often reported and recognized work of curators in the descriptions of species. From what I gathered, not too dissimilar to the experience of Saul Sithole, an assistant to the mammal, bird and palaeontology sections at DITSONG: National Museum of Natural History (1928-1991), as told in “The Forgotten Scientist: The Story of Saul Sithole – Jacana”.
While there are fewer mammal collecting expeditions of the sort Nicholas Arends senior experienced, this visit was a reminder that the skills he had in specimen preparation are still as valid and necessary today. And that today, those skills deserve due recognition and support, given the long-term foundation they provide to the collections.
