We do add taxidermy specimens to our collection
regularly. We find taxidermy specimens are invaluable
in illustrating nature better than any other prop we
have tried.  However, we do no collecting. Our museum
includes a wildlife hospital, and our specimens come
from the animals the hospital cannot save. In order to
guaranty no more animals die than necessary, the
hospital not supplies bodies for us, they also supply
bodies to a local university and a large research
museum, so those facilities do not need to collect.
The hospital director's goal is that no bodies are
destroyed; hopefully they can all be used for
educational and/or scientific purposes.  If there is a
wildlife hospital anywhere near you, you may be able
to get bodies from them. I am assuming you have the
ability to do taxidermy or someone to do it.

Marty Buxton
Curator
Lindsay Wildlife Museum
1931 First Ave.
Walnut Creek, CA 94597
(925) 935-1978

--- William Bevil <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is a question aimed more at the "natural
> history museum types"
> out there...though no doubt everyone would have an
> opinion on the
> subject.
>
> Given the crisis regarding the decline of songbird
> populations across
> the Western Hemisphere, can anyone address how their
> museums
> are modifying or addressing the issue in relation to
> their collecting
> policies?  This topic is certainly applicable to the
> collection of other
> animals and natural objects (shells, etc.)
>
> At our museum, the issue of collecting live animals
> (and the use of
> taxidermy in general) is becoming more and more
> thorny.  We have
> not done this in quite some time, I think partly
> because we are
> paralyzed on this issue.  Truthfully, we lack very
> little in our collection
> that we would need to acquire anything else, but
> occasionally it does
> come up. And we do have existing taxidermy displays
> in the museum
> which need maintenance.
>
> I personally do not like the idea of collecting
> animals for use in
> displays, regardless of its purpose, but am also at
> a loss for
> substitutions.  Artificial specimens would be
> preferable in the "ethical
> arena", but they are prohibitively expensive,
> difficult to acquire and are
> (inexplicably) usually disappointing to visitors
> ("You mean it's not a
> real bird?")  It's like fossil casts vs. the real
> fossil -the cast is
> somehow invalidated immediately in people's minds,
> even though it's
> an almost exact copy.
>
> I am interested to hear how other museums are
> approaching this.
>
> Thanks!
>
> William J. Bevil
> Exhibits Manager
> Fernbank Museum of Natural History
> 404.929.6343
> 404.370.8087 (fax)
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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