[Nhcoll-l] The best way to preserve birds in spirit

[Neisskenwirth Fabian]

Hey Tonya,

First take a DNA sample and freeze in it  -80°C if possible, we store them in little tubes with 80% pure Ethanol. This is the only sure way to preserve the Sample.

For the preservation of Birds (our standard, since we do this a lot):

Since Ethanol is no fixative I would definitely recommend fixating in a formaldehyde solution (3%) for 2 days. Important is (like Simon wrote) to inject the fixative in the bird head and stomach cavities (use natural cavities to avoid destroying tissue, like mouth and anus). These parts tend to rot quickly. Afterward you have to wash the specimen in fresh water for 2 times, at least 3 days of storage in the fresh water for better diffusion. Use the same Jar in which it will be stored in, to dispose the formaldehyde-water correctly. Afterwards you can transfer into Ethanol in small steps (20-40-60-75%) always for at least 4 days in each step. You can add 5% glycerin to the final solution for better color preservation (The few good color preservation in old specimens that I’ve seen have Glycerin in it).

Colors tend to fade with Ethanol, so there is no sure way to keep the colors for longtime preservation (other than dry).

About the Wings, we too store them in Mylar sleeves, but I have seen that they tend to get very flatten and would recommend archival boxes whit a PE Foam sheet on which you can pin the wings with acid free paper straps. This Tipp was given to me from the Museum in Lausanne, when I asked the same question a few months ago.

Hope this helps,

Cheers from Bern


--
Fabian Neisskenwirth
Präparation
Naturwissenschaftlicher Präparator

+41 (0)31 350 72 25
NATURHISTORISCHES MUSEUM BERN
Bernastrasse 15, CH – 3005 Bern
www.nmbe.ch<http://www.nmbe.ch/>
Eine Institution der Burgergemeinde Bern<https://www.bgbern.ch/>

Von: Nhcoll-l [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] Im Auftrag von Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace)
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 2. Mai 2019 03:26
An: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Betreff: [Nhcoll-l] The best way to preserve birds in spirit

Hi all,

We have some birds that we would like to preserve whole, in alcohol. We are currently discussing the best way to preserve them – apparently in the past birds here were put directly into 70% EtOH with no exposure to formalin. I have encountered some pretty squishy birds in spirit, however. On the other side, I recently saw an email from a collection manager suggesting putting birds in 10% formalin for 10 days before transferring them to EtOH, which seems like a very prolonged exposure to me. If any of you who preserve birds in fluids would share what you all do, I’d really appreciate it!

Cheers,

Tonya

---------------------------------------------------------
Dr Tonya Haff
Collections Manager
Australian National Wildlife Collection
National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO
Canberra, Australia
Phone: (+61) 02 6242 1566 (office)
(+61) 0419 569 109 (mobile)

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