Recoloring the Animals in the Dioramas 

Most of this taxidermy is very old, given that he referenced the addition of florescent lights in the 1940s. Animals aren't hunted specifically for taxidermy, at least not in the modern day. They're not just taxidermied specimens, they're artifacts in and of themselves.

It might be cheaper to refresh the old ones rather than get new ones as well. Funding must be low or the budget is simply too small...:S

@SamIAm What does it have to do with modern museums...Lots of cruel unspeakable things were done in the past and not only to animals. Obviously nobody kills animals for museum displays now. But museums runs on budgets and donations. Choosing to fix old ones is good idea, for it gives jobs and practice for taxidermists. It also respects lives of animals lost, as you mentioned, in the past, for they did't die in vain and are still shown in the museum over 100 years later. But- now, we get animals who died to natural causes, in national parks, zoos...Nobody kills animals specially for display.

Fish they definitely would. They'd appreciate the love and respect that they're shown.

go to the wikipedia article Conservation and restoration of taxidermy

There are loads, I took them!

Tom Ivanaj Wow , rude much.

To replace one specimen is hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time.

Ahahah everyone is kinda dumb, there is a truth in this original comment. through out history museums have culled/burned specimens due to age, treatment concerns (arsenic mostly), even over crowding. Famously, in 1926 a collection of specimens were burnt due to aging, one piece was the last remaining taxidermy dodo known to man. without realising it was the only full physical remains in the world, it was thrown into a fire. Someone dove into the flames and saved the head and right foot.

_ hypergamy That's actually really sad. However, you touch on a very important fact going forward into time, that being that the animals in this collection as well as those in other NHM's are likely to become the only remaining specimens and evidence once these animals inevitably become extinct due to human hubris and overpopulation. This is also why I love the work that the researchers do at these museums though, it's like when all organic examples are gone, what will be the legacy of our species beside what we choose to save? In a society headed towards a very blade runner esque future where there are no longer any naturally occurring animals, I do believe these historic collections will be all that is the remnants of our once beautiful world.

Cykablyat i completely agree. One if the most delightful things about the NHM's (and any museum for that matter) collection of taxidermy, specimens and alcohol pieces, is the fact that they are all collected and desired for their history, not only for the species. The dodo came from a collecter from the 18th century, the two lionesses in chicargo's musem of history came after they were wanted for escaping the zoo and killing nine people; the same as the marlon in the natural history museum of england, which swam across the arctic and and was found along the thames. Its nice to know, personally, that these places are not hunting lodges, but collections of stories. Especially more intriguing when the existance of one specimens lineage is fragile alone.

Same,

Mckenzie Pittser working in a museum and doing this kind of work are two different things. To paint and taxidermy animals like this, you have to go to college and study to do this.

Solar-Taffy Who says that you don’t need to go to college to work in a museum?

yeah, it's really impressive. I wish I had access to an airbrush for my fursuits.

Humans don't taxidermy well, they've already tried baha

(O[][]O) How so?

wanting to preserve knowledge is weird?

Ok thank you alien

@@HedgeHominoid we're weird compared to all other mammals baha

But thats what they are...

You better believe it

Dude these taxidermy animals were probably all donated to the museum perhaps more than 70 years ago I would just let it go and enjoy the fact that this is a form of art and I doubt many of them were actually shot and killed solely for the purpose of being in a museum’s diorama exhibition.

Are you okay?

Keeping old specimens is essential, and kind of the point of a museum anyways. They aren't just to look at, museums act as giant research warehouses first and foremost. Specimens are kept to keep track of changes in animals throughout time, so it's within their best interests to keep old specimens and take care of them.

Yeah cause taxidermy animals extinct for a million years are just hanging around

SlimSlitter You're an idiot, any person with an average IQ would know I was talking about animals that are still living.

Obviously the animal that is taxidermied is taxidermied for a fucking reason you idiot. It’s to show animals from a different time period. Don’t go talking about average IQs when you legit don’t know what your talking about smh 🤦‍♀️

Actually, a few of animals they showed are still alive today. They taxidermy these animals to preserve them for generations, so that people can come and see animals that they might not get to see at a zoo or in the wild. I’m not saying that they don’t taxidermy extinct animals, since they do, but people do taxidermy animals that aren’t extinct.