Museum Talks: Sarawak Snapshots

14 April 2024: Bornean Orangutans in Museums – Historical Collections from Alfred Russel Wallace to Odoardo Beccari by Lim Tze Tshen

Mr Lim Tze Tshen in his talk, “Bornean Orangutans in Museums – Historical Collections from Alfred Russel Wallace to Odoardo Beccari” discussed with the  audience some of the historical museum specimens collected from Sarawak/West Borneo by prominent naturalists and local administrators. But, more importantly, he showed how these centuries-old collections still can actively contribute to modern-day research by generating new knowledge important for the future of orangutans in Borneo. 

Orangutans are one of the most charismatic wildlife living in the forests of Sarawak. They had captivated the imagination of many naturalist-explorers and some colonial administrators in Sarawak since the 19th century. Field observations on wild orangutans, together with studies conducted on museum specimens had contributed to the growth of scientific understanding of this great ape. As part of the natural heritage of Sarawak, as well as a tangible manifestation of Sarawak’s early contributions towards global scientific thinking, these historically collected museum specimens should be documented and made known to local Bornean researchers. 

Lim Tze Tshen, a zooarchaeologist and vertebrate palaeontologist, specializes in the study of fossil orangutans and elephants. From 2019 to 2020, he was a research fellow and guest curator (zooarchaeology) of the Sarawak Museum Campus Project. Before that, he was a research associate (animal bones collection) at the Zoology Museum, Universiti Malaya. He studied zooarchaeology and received his Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree from the University of Cambridge in 2021. His current research topics focus on the evolutionary history of southeast Asian Quaternary mammal faunas and its bearing on modern-day biodiversity conservation. He is a committee member of Malaysian Biodiversity Collections Society  and  the honorary secretary of Friends of Sarawak Museum. The link for the recording of the talk is here.