This is a great question - if you folks don't mind, please respond to
the list on Bill's email.

Cecelia Ottenweller

--- 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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