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.