Andrew Gray (zoologist)

Andrew Gray is a British zoologist, teacher and conservationist.^[1]

Andrew Gray is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester. He was appointed Curator of Herpetology at Manchester Museum in September 1995. Here he established ‘The Vivarium’, a free to the public purpose-built facility dedicated to the conservation of tropical amphibians.^[2] Gray's interest in amphibians and reptiles began from a very early age.^[3] During his career as a professional herpetologist he has discovered new species^[4] and established conservation initiatives to save some of the rarest frogs in the world,^[5] for example the critically endangered lemur leaf frog.^[6] Gray is an authority on frogs of the Phyllomedusinae genus Cruziohyla.^[7] He described the tadpole of Cruziohyla calcarifer^[8] and in 2018 described the new species Cruziohyla sylviae^[9] which is named after his first grandchild Sylvia Beatrice Gray.^[10]

Gray's conservation efforts have mainly focused in Central America, where he has initiated multi-disciplined collaborative projects,^[11] developed international environmental education programmes,^[12] and jointly established student field courses for the University of Manchester.^[13] In 2006 Gray was a main scientific adviser for the BBC's landmark series Planet Earth and worked further with Sir David Attenborough on the BBC Natural World's programme Fabulous Frogs.^[14] Apart from wildlife conservation, Gray also has a keen interest in conserving English heritage and in 2004 completely restored the then derelict Euxton Hall Chapel, which was designed by E. W. Pugin in 1866.^[15]