Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum

Anonymous asked: how can you enjoy skinning and "cleaning" animals? i'm just not getting it..

I don’t do this job because I get some kind of sick satisfaction out of removing the skin of an animal if that’s what you’re implying — if I thought this job was for everyone I wouldn’t have an essay as a disclaimer on the top of my blog warning people about the graphic nature of these images.  

I do it because I love history and preservation; because this artform is centuries old and has proved to be beneficial to the very society that seems to scorn its practice.  I do it because someday someone is going to want to know what a sandhill crane looked like, and not just pictures in books, they’re going to want to see the physical remains.  You get enough people together with that kind of positive foresight into the future and 80 years later you have a collection like the UMZM, 24k specimens for the university and community of Missoula to access and use in research.  Whether or not our society will accept this practice and respect it for the time it takes to learn and do it well, the world as a whole benefits from the diligent work of museums; some museums collect art, others historical items from wars and events, others yet are full of plant specimens.  Our museum just happens to collect animals and the method of preservation just happens to involve some techniques that have gone by the cultural wayside over the last 40 years.

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3. crotalinae said: great answer :) and so so true, the specimens have such incredible value- there’s just so much that can be learned from them!
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