Best natural history taxidermy dioramas

It is quite a beautiful one indeed.

The congregation of animals doesn't look all that unnatural (like in some museums) considering that it is meant to be portraying a waterhole, the spatial element of the diorama and that these species are seen side by side in Africa as they arrive to drink or wallow.

 

Wow!

That must have been an incredible and poignant experience @carlos55 !

What did it feel like when you saw these specimens ?

 

Of the African ones, I liked the East African waterhole with beisa, Grant's gazelle and Grévy's zebra (including young animals) the most.

Of the North American ones, I especially liked the ones in the two side corridors with small dioramas because of the small mammals on display there that I haven't seen before like fisher, mountain beaver, Virginia opossum and desert hares, as impressive as the ones of deer and bears may be. The one with the ringtails and defensive spotted skunk was a diorama I really liked.

 

The African ones are amazing I agree, I can't really think of any of them that didn't seem to be fairly realistic scenes that could be seen in nature. I guess that is ultimately a testament to Akeley's vision and genius.

I don't remember too many of the smaller mammal dioramas in the North American hall but I remember just being impressed with all of the dioramas that I saw there that gave this grand narrative of the beauty of the wildlife of the continent.

 

I always dream that indoor spaces of hoofed animals and carnivores in Northern zoos could be shaped like these dioramas, instead of stables / dens.

 

They would make a tremendous mess of the painted scenes though wouldn't they ?

I mean you would spend time and money creating beautiful backgrounds only for a lion or an okapi to take a s*** or p*** down it and well.. the effect totally ruined.

 

See big cats in Frankfurt or Milwaukee, giraffes in Prague or Duisburg and okapi in Dvur Kralove for examples how it can be done.

Indoor spaces for big animals need not be functional boxes.

 

I'm not really a big animal sort of person (and my feelings about them being in zoos is complex) but I suppose you are right that a lot more creativity could be given for these animals housing and captive surroundings in captivity.

 

My favorite diorama is probably the greater kudu diorama at the AMNH. I love the big male standing over the female and the elephants and Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. I also love the African buffalo diorama because the location is a place that no longer exists, and the grizzly diorama, because the story behind it was funny because a young artist took a picture making it look like one of the taxidermy bears was attacking him.
The taxidermy specimens at the Smithsonian museum I think are the most realistic-looking taxidermy specimens of all. The only one there I don't like is the spectral bat holding the mouse.

 

Yes, that is a beautiful one indeed, though I have to admit that I had to refresh my memory a bit by looking it up. I love the painting of this kudu diorama because it really conveys that dusk type setting and the vulnerability of these animals to predators (looks like the male is guarding the female).

I do remember the African buffalo diorama though and I remember it being in an African wetland / marsh type area. I didn't know that this location no longer existed though so that is something new I've learnt. Why does this area no longer exist ? What happened to it ?

Its great to see the old vintage photos of these dioramas being produced isn't it ?

I think it is also great to see the taxidermists / scientists having fun too as it makes them seem more human.

I've never been to the Smithsonian (would be great to see it one day though) so will have to have a look at what these look like on google images.

What don't you like about the spectral bat with its prey ?

 

The location was a swamp called Tinga Tinga Kubwa. It was created when an eruption of Mount Kenya caused a lava flow to dam the Tana River, creating a vast floodplain. It was drained and destroyed by agriculture.

The bat looks very unrealistic. The upper jaw looks too short and the rodent it's holding looks gross. Other than that, I think the Smithsonian's taxidermy is some of the best looking ever.

 

I see, well the fact that this place no longer existing anymore certainly makes the diorama even more poignant doesn't it ?

One of the dioramas there in the African gallery, the Libyan desert diorama, is another beautiful and bittersweet example of a scene no longer possible to see as it portrays dama gazelle, scimitar horned oryx and addax which are all now regionally extinct within that area of the Sahara.

I think I would definitely love to go and see those dioramas at AMNH one day again with fresh eyes as it has been a long time since I saw them.

Regarding the spectral bat, yes I agree, wouldn't it be amazing to have a diorama of this species which was more accurate and portrayed something of the social life or predatory nature of this species ? (I'm not sure that it would endear the general public to the species any more though)

 

Very interesting thread. I will read it after. Regarding that subject, I think that the absolutely unbeatable winner in the world is the Congo Basin rainforest diorama at the König museum, Bonn, Germany. It's absolutely a real African rainforest frozen in time. Every minute detail is exhaustively cared for. The leaves are undistinguishable from real plant leaves, not like those plastic leaves that florists made for decoration. Many leaves have bites, infections and fungus in the most absolute realistic way. The leaf litter in the soil is incredible, the fallen fruits and the ants, the butterflies sucking at fresh dung... Every small insect put into the leaves are in a really natural position, with each leg firmly attached to the irregular surfaces of the leaves. And every insect is Central African native. Of course this diorama is also full of incredibly dreamed species, from zebra duiker to giant otter shrew, picathartes or mountain gorillas. Every big animal is also in a very naturalistic position, not intended as showing themselves to the public, but partially hiding or doing activities as you would found them in a real jungle. Unlike the Congo Basin rainforest diorama at Biodiversity Hall of AMNH, in the one at Bonn all the models are real taxidermy/preserved specimens, none artificial reconstruction.
Of course, the König museum also have other incredibly magnific dioramas such as the big African Savannah one, but is the African Jungle one what impressed me more of every museum I've visited in the world.

I must say that the various dioramas of African, Asian and North American mammals of AMNH are fabulous too. But no doubt Bonn's African rainforest is the best one in my opinion.

 

Thank you for your comment @Kakapo ! Much appreciated !

You sound very impressed with this particular diorama and so I'm really quite interested to have a look at pictures of it (do you have any by the way ?)

From what you describe in the painstaking attention given over to detail (flora, naturalistic fauna / scenes etc) this particular diorama in König museum may have been modelled using techniques that were first pioneered at the AMNH with their dioramas.

I'll have to check out these König museum dioramas as they seem to be brilliant and very modern ones.

 

I only have images of some of the animals present in them, but none of the general exhibit, sections of them or the details that amazed me so much. If you find them useful I can upload here picture of those animals, that are:
-Papilio antimachus
-Picathartes gymnocephalus
-Varanus ornatus
-Pyrenestes ostrinus
-Euchloron megaera
-Papilio dardanus
-Cymothoe beckeri
-Charaxes pleione
-Charaxes smaragdalis
-Pitta angolensis
-Malacomys edwardsi
-Funisciurus isabella
-Atilax paludinosus
-Cephalophus zebra
-Goliathus goliathus
-Terpsiphone viridis
-Chamaeleo cristatus
-Merops muelleri
-Illadopsis rufipennis
-Pogoniulus bilineatus
-Cossypha natalensis
-Alethe poliocephala
-Bleda syndactyla
-Phyllastrephus cabanisi
-Pogonocichla stellata
-Ploceus bicolor
-Hypargos niveoguttatus
-Rhynchocyon cirnei stuhlmanni
-Scolopendra morsitans
-Psytalla horrida
-Hysterocrates gigas
-Acanthaspis bilineolata

Probably in some of them a little bit of the surroundings can be seen, but nothing compared to when you visit the exhibit.

 

Thanks for the list ! Wow ! that is quite a lot of species there indeed.

Yes, please feel free to upload some photos, I would be very interested in seeing these.

 

OK, so here you have the images of most of the animals listed above. There are of course many more animals in the exhibit, but I didn't took photos of, for example, chimpanzees, leopard or Eastern gorillas, all of them species that I already had photos of. The insects are all unlabelled and hence I also didn't photographed the less showy ones, such as small brown longhorn beetles, due to the extreme difficult to ID them. Yes, the diorama is so detailed as for put non-showy native Central African insects in it!
And as you saw in the video avobe... every leaf of the exhibit is exhaustively treated for look like totally natural, and many with damages, bites and fungus. Imagine what a work with a million of leaves in the whole exhibit!

Papilio antimachus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:23 PM

Picathartes gymnocephalus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:23 PM

Varanus ornatus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:23 PM

Euchloron megaera (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:23 PM

Papilio dardanus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:23 PM

Charaxes smaragdalis (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:27 PM

Cymothoe beckeri (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:27 PM

Pitta angolensis (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:27 PM

Malacomys edwardsi (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:27 PM

Atilax paludinosus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:27 PM

Cephalophus zebra (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:31 PM

Goliathus goliathus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:31 PM

Terpsiphone viridis (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:31 PM

Chamaeleo cristatus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:31 PM

Merops muelleri (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:31 PM

Miniodes discolor (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:38 PM

Cossypha natalensis (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:38 PM

Hypargos niveoguttatus (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:38 PM

Rhynchocyon cirnei stuhlmanni (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:38 PM

Hysterocrates gigas (preserved) by Kakapo posted 24 Oct 2020 at 9:38 PM

 

Well, I am going to have to agree with you with the quality of these individual specimens, very beautiful and posed naturalistically too.

I like the fact that these are all smaller lesser known African species that would be cryptically hidden away in the forest (I think my favourites are the marsh mongoose and the Edward's swamp rat ).

I guess it is hard for me to judge the overall diorama though and its naturalism though as can't see a full picture of it (not that I am an experienced taxidermist / museum curator or have ever seen or experienced what an equatorial African rainforest looks like first-hand anyway though).

 

While the taxidermy work may not be the best, la Galerie de l'évolution in Paris has first of all an amazing building. Some of the rooms are just magnificient.
Also it has some rather interesting preserved animals, among others :
- Louis XV's rhinoceros
- Louis XVI's Quagga
- President Pompidou's panda

The last two are exhibited in La salle des Espèces disparues, with many other very rare / extinct species.