Museum trade

Steven Scarpa
Indomalayan Pencil-Tailed Tree Mouse, Chiropodomys gliroides

 Indomalayan Pencil-Tailed Tree Mouse, Chiropodomys gliroides. Photo by Jonathan L. Fiely

They don’t make trades only in baseball. 

The Yale Peabody Museum and the University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAM) recently agreed to a specimen exchange. The skeleton of the famed Alaskan sled dog Togo was sent to UAM in exchange for a collection of more than a thousand small mammals from Cambodia, including treeshrews, a bamboo rat, and numerous microbats. 

“It makes more sense to have Togo in Alaska, and this amazing collection from Cambodia is likely to get more attention in the Northeast Corridor,” Peabody curator of mammalogy Eric Sargis said, noting that the region has a series of well-connected natural history museums that are a magnet for global researchers. 

What’s interesting about this trade is the opportunities the materials present for each organization. The Cambodian collection opens a window into a poorly documented biodiversity hotspot and could reveal species that are new to science, and Alaska brings a hero home. 

“As the only museum in Alaska with a tripartite mission of research, teaching, and collecting, the University of Alaska Museum of the North is a fitting home for Togo. Alaska’s rich and storied tradition of mushing remains as strong as ever, and Togo will be welcomed back with open arms and hearts,” said Link Olson, the curator of mammals at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, who is also a Peabody Museum curatorial affiliate. 

Togo

Togo

The Peabody’s Togo specimen was a long way from home. 

In 1925, Nome, Alaska, had a diphtheria outbreak. Several sled dog teams were deployed to carry serum to the stricken region. Togo and his musher Leonhard Seppala traveled more than 250 miles, the longest and most dangerous portion of the serum-run to Nome. Balto, a sled dog who finished the journey, got credit for the haul, but Togo shouldered the heaviest load. 

“I never had a better dog than Togo. His stamina, loyalty, and intelligence could not be improved upon. Togo was the best dog that ever traveled the Alaska Trail,” Seppala said in 1960, according to the National Park Service. 

The Peabody has cared for Togo’s skeleton since his passing in 1929. His hide was preserved in a taxidermy mount displayed at the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Headquarters museum in Wasilla, Alaska. His skeleton will now be on display at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. 

“The idea of having Togo at the Museum and back in Alaska is a little like a champion coming home after a long absence. Togo and Seppala were the unsung heroes of that serum run, after the public recognition of Balto and Gunnar Kaasen. Having Togo here, along with the belongings of his former companion, is a reunion we’ve been waiting for,” said Angela Linn, Senior Collections Manager, Ethnology & History at UAM. 

Bamboo Rat, Rhizomys

Bamboo Rat, Rhizomys. Photo by Jonathan L. Fiely.

Yale has both gained a scientifically valuable research collection and increased its accessibility for researchers, Sargis said.  

Sargis and Olson gathered some of the collection during a research trip to Cambodia 20 years ago with funding from the National Geographic Society and National Science Foundation. They worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society there. Another part of the collection was orphaned and had to be properly curated. At the time, Sargis and Olson salvaged the collection and prepared it for transfer to the University of Alaska Museum of the North.  

Being at the Peabody will allow Sargis and other researchers to conduct anatomical and genetic analyses on these specimens, a process that has already borne fruit. Olson and Sargis have previously used the Cambodia specimens in their collaborative research. This research led to a publication in the “Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History,” first-authored by Kara Weiss ‘19, based on her senior thesis in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. 

Some of the animals in this collection are good models for the earliest primates, Sargis’ primary area of study. Studying these animals could help to clarify the diversity of this understudied and threatened region. “This could help create a better understanding of the biodiversity of this region, which will inform conservation priorities for this fauna,” Sargis said.  

Like the best trades, the Peabody Museum-University of Alaska Museum swap was one where everyone wins.