By night or twilight (depending on the days progress) Galen and Peter prepared their specimens for transport and more importantly for preservation as scientific museum specimens. (They have a collecting permit for 8 of each Sengi species.) They were neatly and expertly skinned and then stuffed, turned into ‘study skins’. It is something I have always wanted to know how to do.
Having worked at the National History Museum in London, as part of my job I have investigated most corners and storerooms to examine their extraordinary collections and stood eye to eye with preserved large animals, all but alive... for the glass eyes and elements of slight curl or fading that set in over time. Images are etched deep, such as the baby elephant prepared by the great Taxodermist Rowland Ward, so life like it is turning as if it has just spotted you or the Black Maned Lion now extinct from the Cape in South Africa. Or the large collection of Giraffes in the storeroom in Wandsworth were necks are separated from bodies for economies of space and placed carefully next to their matching body - the slender necks form a wonderful dappled grove with the heads as a low-lying canopy you could almost touch. Or the small Victorian cabinet on display in the museum, crammed full of hummingbirds that glitter prepared with their habitat and scattered amongst the trees like Christmas decorations.
Having worked at the National History Museum in London, as part of my job I have investigated most corners and storerooms to examine their extraordinary collections and stood eye to eye with preserved large animals, all but alive... for the glass eyes and elements of slight curl or fading that set in over time. Images are etched deep, such as the baby elephant prepared by the great Taxodermist Rowland Ward, so life like it is turning as if it has just spotted you or the Black Maned Lion now extinct from the Cape in South Africa. Or the large collection of Giraffes in the storeroom in Wandsworth were necks are separated from bodies for economies of space and placed carefully next to their matching body - the slender necks form a wonderful dappled grove with the heads as a low-lying canopy you could almost touch. Or the small Victorian cabinet on display in the museum, crammed full of hummingbirds that glitter prepared with their habitat and scattered amongst the trees like Christmas decorations.
Peter was taught the skill and quickly picked it up, being very dexterous and careful. For some reason I would always alight on the stuffing scene, which was sharply illuminated by their head torches, just as Peter had finished neatly putting a kebab stick with twissled cotton wool into the tail and was embarking on brushing or stroking the specimen with a toothbrush.
Towards the end of their trip Galen very kindly taught me to prepare a specimen. I so enjoyed my lesson, once I had detached myself from the living creature that was still warm in my hands and imagined its great value as a sample of its morphological and genetic evolution - I had the opportunity to examine it closely and did.
I have always wanted to try this art, there is a difference between preparing study skins which preserve the features as much as possible and a taxidermy specimen that preserves the pose of life. Mareja Sengi are being prepared flat with feet neatly and directly forward and back, not the most comfortable pose but they can be stored and studied to best advantage.
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