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)
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