[NHCOLL-L:5883] RE: freeze dried specimens .v.traditional taxidermy

[Anderson, Gretchen]

Hi Ruth,

The advantage of freeze drying is that it is often less expensive than traditional taxidermy and, in the hands of a master, the specimens are beautiful particularly for smaller animals.

The disadvantage to freeze drying the muscle is left in place, making the specimen edible and tasty. With traditional taxidermy methods the skins of larger animals are tanned, making them less edible. If you have hoofed and horned animals there can be lot of edible material in the horn and hoof that will continue to attract pests. The skins of small animals and birds are used raw - so will continue to be a concern but at least the meat is gone.

Freeze dried specimens are more attractive to pests than traditional taxidermy.  The pests include anything that normally eats protein - fur, hide, feathers etc.- rodents, dermestids, wool moths. I dealt with freeze-dried specimens that were eaten by mice on the night prior to the grand opening of a new gallery. Not only was this embarrassing (the 1st view of the visitors was conservators crawling through the diorama picking up feathers and damaged birds), but cost the museum additional money in creating traditional taxidermy specimens. The traditional mounts were not as elegant, but they were not as attractive to pests.

What ever taxidermy method you use, you should have a plan to deter the pests. As Simon pointed out our options for pesticide is very limited. Edolin U was great because it actually made the edible bits less edible, but that is no longer an option for most of us. If you can create tightly enclosed dioramas you can to reduce pest incidence, as well as reduce dust and the need to do ongoing cleaning.  I have seen this done many times.  It is much more difficult to maintain taxidermy specimens (traditional or freeze dried) in open air dioramas - the freeze dried specimens I dealt with were in the open. Keeping an open diorama dust free and in good shape, especially if it has naturalistic (dried or replicated) plants and landscape, is difficult and very time consuming.  The taxidermy can easily be damaged by too much cleaning.  And if not cleaned will be more attractive to pests and just look bad.

If you have a closed environment (case) and the specimens have gone through pest control (thermal treatments - freeze or heat -- or anoxic are preferred), and are clean when installed there is less risk and less expense in the long run. It is also easier to deal with a potential infestation. However, if everything is in the open - the risk is significantly greater and will spread much faster if an infestation occurs.  In either situation, you will need to monitor.

Finally, if you use a pesticide (fumigant or other), check with your local/federal government to see what kind of pesticides are approved for use in a museum and if they target the pests that you are concerned about.

Good Luck!
Gretchen Anderson
Conservator
Carnegie Museum of Natural History

________________________________
From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Ruth Mollison
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 5:26 PM
To: nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:5880] freeze dried specimens .v.traditional taxidermy

Hello,
I need to gather information on the advantages of freeze dried taxidermy mounts versus traditionally made taxidermy mounts. This is for the museum I work for as it is undergoing a major redevelopment in exhibitions at present.
I would love to have some opinions, information and experiences of using both these methods.


Ruth Mollison
 Zoology Registration Officer/   Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery  / City site: 5 Argyle Street HOBART/ Rosny Site: Collections and Research, Winkleigh Place Rosny.

Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts

Rosny phone: 6211 4172
City Phone: 6211 4203
Email: ruth.mollison at tmag.tas.gov.au<mailto:ruth.mollison at tmag.tas.gov.au>

I work Tuesday to Friday at either the Rosny or the city sites.



________________________________
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER
The information in this transmission may be confidential and/or protected by legal professional privilege, and is intended only for the person or persons to whom it is addressed. If you are not such a person, you are warned that any disclosure, copying or dissemination of the information is unauthorised. If you have received the transmission in error, please immediately contact this Office by telephone, fax or email, to inform us of the error and to enable arrangements to be made for the destruction of the transmission, or its return at our cost. No liability is accepted for any unauthorised use of the information contained in this transmission.
If the transmission contains advice, the advice is based on instructions in relation to, and is provided to the addressee in connection with, the matter mentioned above. Responsibility is not accepted for reliance upon it by any other person or for any other purpose.

The information contained in this message and/or attachments is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material.  Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.  If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any system and destroy any copies.  Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20120308/0f50b749/attachment.html