Takes 5 people to move a polar bear out of a case
Preparing skull for photography
It is all change on the Mammals gallery at the moment – all the animals and skeletons are being removed from the cases for the first time in many years, to make way for the fit out work that needs to be done in the gallery space for the redevelopment of the galleries over the 10 months. It will also give us a chance to conserve and clean all those specimens that are going to go back on the gallery.
As we progress through the cases it is not always apparent how the larger animals have been mounted and attached to displays. They have to be secured to make sure they are stable and don’t fall over and all of the fixings are normally hidden from view. We have to understand the ingenuity of past colleagues and disassemble the whole displays slowly. Obviously some animals are proving to be slightly more challenging than others – as they range from tiny field mice, hidden amongst cornstalks to lions and polar bears!
These larger animals are not as heavy as you might think as they are normally stuffed with wadding and plaster wrapped around an iron armature. Awkward is the word that comes to mind, as there is usually very little room inside the case for 4 people lifting as well as the animal in question.
It is quite physical work and everyone is working very hard to get them wrapped for the next stage which is freezing them. This will ensure that they we are protecting the specimens from pest damage, or indeed transporting pests to other areas of the museum.
As we work through the gallery our colleagues from the John Ryland’s Library (Jamie Robinson and Christian Ollier -http://chiccmanchester.wordpress.com/) are taking some great photos which will be used for our records but also in the new interactive material that will accompany our new displays in the middle of next year.
Escapee from a Beatrix Potter story
