National Museum of Natural Science

Huang, Wen-San 

• 2025/03/28~ until now

Degrees

• Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ph.D

Taiwan is really a small island. There are very few species of amphibians and reptiles, no more than 150 at most. Nevertheless, some of the amphibian and reptile specimens in the National Museum of Natural Science have not yet reached a certain number, at least enough for research or exchange. For the past 27 years (1992-2019), my major work has been in the collection and study of amphibians and reptiles.

In particular, snakes. Although more than 2,300 snakes were donated to us, some of the specimens lost their original data and thus lost a lot of their value. Nevertheless, most of the specimens were still valuable and added much to our collection. Except for the Gekkonidae family (especially the Gekkonidae from Orchid Island), lizards are still available in reasonable quantities. For example, the Snowy Grass Lizard, the Short-limbed Climbing Lizard, and the Taiwanese tree Lizard have been studied. Turtle is also one of the key items to be collected in the future. In particular, there are 4 types of sea turtles distributed around Taiwan: the green, hawksbill, loggerhead, and olive ridley turtles.

Between 1992 and 1996, my research centered on 5 species of lizards from the central highlands temperate zone. After 1997, I shifted my focus to Orchid Island, which is located in the tropical zone in southeastern Taiwan. I have been studying the reptile ecology of Lanyu (Orchid Island) for 28 years (1997-2025), and have published more than 70 papers, almost all of them as the first author or corresponding author. In particular, the publications in PNAS (two) and Science Advances (two) are the result of long-term ecological data collection.

From 2019 to March 2025, I served as the Deputy Director of Academic Affairs, mainly responsible for the administration of the museum's academic, exhibition, science education, and 3 parks. From March 28, 2025 to the present, I serve as the Director General of the museum, and my administrative work has become even heavier. In particular, we have secured the renewal program of Life Sciences Hall from the Ministry of Education, and we will continue to work hard in the coming years.