Written by Becky Desjardins, Senior Preparateur, Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

It is a Wednesday afternoon in Naturalis’ Live Science Hall. An older woman walks by, holding her nose, but watching us intently. Shortly after, teenagers on a school trip yell “eeeewww gross!” but then come in closer to check it out. A young girl says loudly “I think this is sad” while she drags her mom by the hand up to our silver lab table. On the table is a large Eurasian eagle-owl, now in two pieces. I am removing muscle from the detached wing, and my co-worker Liselotte is busy pulling the skin from the body. This owl, found dead by the side of the road, is being prepared as a study skin for the museum’s collection. But instead of in the lab, we are doing it live in front of the public in a hall that has free entry.

We prepare vertebrates, mostly mammals and birds (though we have worked on a giant ocean sunfish here too) live twice a week, all the while talking to visitors who stop by. On a quiet day, visitors can come right up to the table (they are kept at a bit of a distance by a stanchion) and on a busy day, people sit on the risers in the hall and interact with us via a science educator who walks around with a microphone taking visitor questions. We have a camera mounted in the ceiling zoomed in on the table. This is shown on the screen behind us so that even the smallest visitors can see what we are doing. 

All topics are open for discussion during these sessions. On the day of the eagle-owl preparation, we discussed: how it died and common causes of avian mortality; the natural history of the eagle-owl and how they are spreading in the Netherlands; bird anatomy and what this bird ate last; which parts of the owl we are going to save for the collection and how we do that; what is a collection, how many eagle-owls are already in the collection, why do we need more, and examples of research projects done with eagle-owl specimens. In addition, sometimes visitors get really curious about us: how did we learn this work? What is the biggest/smallest/scariest animal we have ever prepared? All questions are welcome!

We bring props with us to further illustrate the process. These include different kinds of taxidermy materials from wood wool to kapok and a foam body, glass eyes and a mounted bird still wrapped in string with pins in it. We have on the table recently prepared study skins that are still drying and a spread wing of a buzzard showing many different generations of feathers (helps when explaining molt). We recently prepared a mole specifically to be touched by visitors, and we have mounted skeletons for a bird and a mammal. The most important is the picture we have of a drawer in the collection filled with Green woodpeckers. In this photo visitors can see the variety in birds, not just different sexes and ages, but season, year and location they were collected. We think this really brings the message home of the power of scientific collection.

Doing these preparation sessions has become one of my favorite tasks. People’s reactions are so interesting! It is always the student who yells “gross!” the loudest who will then sit by the table the longest and ask all kinds of questions. We often see that within a family, a parent thinks preparation is fascinating but the children think it is boring or gross (or the other way around). On the day of the Eagle owl, a visitor commented that watching us was “Relaxing….like watching a cooking show!”

There are kids obsessed with seeing the heart of the animal, and we spend a lot of time explaining how these animals died. We receive animals that are found dead via the general public or wildlife shelters. Because we talk so much about common causes of animal mortality, I hope that we’ve reached people about the importance of keeping cats inside and to keep lights off at night in the fall to help migratory birds.

Because of safety concerns, there are certain specimens that we won’t do in front of the public (foxes and bats come to mind). People can’t eat or drink in the hall, and aren’t allowed to touch the table. We also try to avoid very smelly specimens, such as a mustelid or something very rotten, though we do have a portable fume hood. When planning the sessions, I try to pick a variety of vertebrates from the freezer and during school holidays when it will be busier I choose particularly spectacular specimens: a jackal, or a swan, something big.

The preparator team consists of myself and enthusiastic volunteers from a variety of backgrounds. Jos teaches neurology at the hospital to medical students, and Liselotte is busy with her PhD. Charmé is a hairdresser who owns her own salon. There are some team members who work at Naturalis in other departments, and indeed, on quieter days we get visited by lots of our colleagues, stopping by to see what is on the table and have a chat.

Taxidermy is a craft that many people know about, but not many know how it is done. By the same token, the general public knows the museum has exhibits but they don’t always know about scientific collections. Live specimen preparation is a chance to engage the public about both of these important aspects of museum work.