Do you know that every 3rd day of March has been declared by the United Nations General Assembly as World Wildlife Day?

Forty years ago, on March 3, 1973, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES was adopted 80 countries the meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Washington, USA. As of February 2014, 180 states, the Philippines included, have become signatories to the convention.

Museum staff led by MNH curator for small and volant mammals Prof. Phillip A. Alviola held a training last February 3-7 2014 on cave bat surveying for  cave guides and park rangers of the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, members of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and selected personnel from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Love (for nature and biodiversity) was truly up in the air on 12 February at the jampacked UPLB MNH Conference Room when Dr. Aimee Lynn Barrion-Dupo, MNH Curator, presented a seminar entitled "Diverse Truths About Lovestruck Spiders" as part of the museum's biodiversity seminar series.

Those wondering why scientific names are italized ought to remember their biology classes, me too included. Come to think of it, this interesting trivia could have ducked anyone, as it is rather too uninteresting to the common Juan and Maria.