120 Years in 120 Objects
Join the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in celebrating the museumโs 120th year of orbiting the sun. Staff and guest curators have chosen one object or item per year of our existence to highlight to the public. Visit the website and our social media platforms regularly to see the latest object and keep an eye out for information about a physical exhibition later this year!
Todayโs Object is from 2004
Field Guide to the land snails and slugs of eastern South Africa by Nelisiwe Manukuza, Research Technician in Malacology
The book was written by Dai Herbert and Dick Kilburn in 2004 and was dedicated to the three pioneers of South African terrestrial malacology: Henry Clifden Burnup, Major Matthew William Kemble Connolly and Dr A.C. (Dolf) van Bruggen whom without their earlier studies it would not have been possible. The book was published in the KwaZulu-Natal Museumโs centenary year and celebrated 100 years of malacological research at the museum. The purpose of writing this field guide was to bring to light the remarkable diversity of terrestrial molluscan life occurring in the eastern region of South Africa. The authors hoped to provide a tool for biologists and naturalists in turn to study these fascinating animals in greater detail. The book concentrated on the fauna of the eastern part of South Africa (essentially KwaZulu-Natal and former Transkei now part of the Eastern Cape Province), as far south as Mbashe River. However, a large proportion of species also range further into the Eastern Cape, and into the provinces of Mpumalanga and Gauteng (previously part of the Transvaal), and even into the adjacent countries of Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho.
