The Natural History Museum section of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ) will be closing by the end of the month to begin redeveloping its exhibits.

A team of BAMZ staff has been working with specialists from Boston for a number of years on how to improve the museum.

"We wanted to develop the Natural History Museum to keep up with the ongoing enhancement of the BAMZ facility," museum curator Wolfgang Sterrer said in a press release.

Last month, Premier Jennifer Smith officially wet the roof on BAMZ's new Education building - an 18-month project which received $2.2 million in Government funding.

The new building holds three classrooms for BAMZ's outreach programmes as well as administrative offices and the offices of the Department of Conservation Services.

The revitalised Natural History Museum "will include a central orientation exhibit featuring a three-minute video animation of Bermuda's formation from the seamount to its colonisation by plants, animals and humans - and the impact resulting from that growth," the press release said. The museum library will also be expanded and it is hoped it will develop into an important resource centre for Island students and teachers.

The museum is expected to close before Christmas and re-open in mid-July 2003.