Andrew Gray is a British zoologist, teacher and conservationist.

Biography

Andrew Gray is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester. He was appointed Curator of Herpetology at

Manchester Museum Manchester Museum is a museum displaying works of archaeology, anthropology and natural history and is owned by the University of Manchester, in England. Sited on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road (A34 road, A34) at the heart of the university's group ...

in September 1995. Here he established ‘The Vivarium’, a free to the public purpose-built facility dedicated to the conservation of tropical amphibians. Gray's interest in

amphibians Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

and

reptiles Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

began from a very early age. During his career as a professional herpetologist he has discovered new species and established conservation initiatives to save some of the rarest frogs in the world, for example the critically endangered lemur leaf frog. Gray is an authority on frogs of the

Phyllomedusinae Phyllomedusinae is a subfamily of hylid tree frogs found in the Neotropics commonly called leaf frogs. Formerly, they were often considered as their own family, Phyllomedusidae. The subfamily is considered to be the sister group to the Austral ...

genus ''

Cruziohyla ''Cruziohyla'' is a genus of frogs in the subfamily Phyllomedusinae. They occur from Honduras in Central America south to the Amazon Basin in South America. This genus was erected in 2005 following a major revision of the Hylidae and fully review ...

''. He described the tadpole of ''

Cruziohyla calcarifer ''Cruziohyla calcarifer'', the splendid leaf frog or splendid treefrog, is a species of tree frog of the subfamily Phyllomedusinae described in 1902 by George Albert Boulenger. It has a distribution from Esmeraldas Province in northwestern Ecuado ...

'' and in 2018 described the new species ''

Cruziohyla sylviae ''Cruziohyla sylviae'', also known as Sylvia's tree frog, is a large colourful species of tree frog from Central America. People have seen it between 30 and 1600 meters above sea level. Description and taxonomy The species was described in 2018 ...

'' which is named after his first grandchild Sylvia Beatrice Gray. Gray's conservation efforts have mainly focused in Central America, where he has initiated multi-disciplined collaborative projects, developed international environmental education programmes, and jointly established student field courses for the University of Manchester. In 2006 Gray was a main scientific adviser for the BBC's landmark series

Planet Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all of Earth's water is ...

and worked further with

Sir David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

on the BBC Natural World's programme ''Fabulous Frogs''. Apart from wildlife conservation, Gray also has a keen interest in conserving English heritage and in 2004 completely restored the then derelict

Euxton Hall Chapel Euxton Hall Chapel is situated in the village of Euxton, Lancashire, England. It was designed by architect E. W. Pugin (1834–1875), and built in 1866 as a private chapel for the Anderton family. Set within the grounds of Euxton Hall, and a Gr ...

, which was designed by E. W. Pugin in 1866.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Andrew Living people 20th-century British zoologists 21st-century British zoologists British conservationists Year of birth missing (living people) Manchester Museum people