Os pongo el mail que me han mandado del CNAH (Center for North American Herpetology):
"CNAH ANNOUNCEMENT
The Center for North American Herpetology
Lawrence, Kansas
http://www.cnah.org
18 May 2010
BUTANTAN FIRE IN BRAZIL DESTROYS HISTORIC SPECIMEN COLLECTION
by Lucia Kassai
16 May 2010
A fire at Brazil’s Instituto Butantan yesterday destroyed most of the building and the
country’s largest collection of snake and other animal specimens, some 100 years old, the
newspaper Folha de São Paulo reported.
The blaze destroyed most of the institute’s 80,000 snakes and 500,000 spiders and
scorpions, including some of the first found, and as much as 75 percent of the building,
Folha said, citing Otavio Mercadante, a director at Butantan, a research institute in São
Paulo.
Most of the specimens were preserved in formol, a flammable liquid used for biological
specimens. The formol helped spread the fire, the cause of which is under investigation,
Folha said.
No injuries were reported, the Sao Paulo-based newspaper said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucia Kassai in São Paulo at lkassai@bloomberg.net"
