Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Hall of African Wildlife

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Saving the Bonteboks

Bontebok on display in the Hall of African Wildlife

Bonteboks, like this one on display in the Hall of African Wildlife, are the rarest antelopes in the world. In Afrikaans, the word bontebok means “colorful antelope,” which is a reference to their white face patches.

Bonteboks were aggressively hunted in the early 1800s to the point of near extinction. By the 1930s, there were only 17 bonteboks in the entire world that all lived on a family farm. Thanks to the work of conservationists and the South African government, there are now about 3,000 bontebocks in zoos, farms, and preserves around the world.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) confiscated this bontebok taxidermy mount in 2011 in Los Angeles from a shipment that came from South Africa because they suspected it was collected illegally.

Due to our museum’s well-known collection of African mammals, USFWS contacted curators and asked if they would accept the donation and tell the story of bontebok. With the help of members of the Carnegie Discoverers, the museum happily accepted.

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A specimen of Crocodylus niloticus

Crocodylus niloticus

A specimen of Crocodylus niloticus, one of the largest ever collected from Africa, is on display in the Hall of African Wildlife.

This Nile crocodile was more than 17 feet long and weighed nearly a ton when it was collected from Tanzania.

(Photo by Hayley Pontia)

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Play in the Savannah

Hall of African Wildlife at Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Hall of African Wildlife at Carnegie Museum of Natural History

by Patrick McShea

Amid the life sized, realistic diorama’s in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Hall of African Wildlife, there is a low table with adjacent seating that is reserved for play on a smaller scale.

Sturdy scale models of Africa’s emblematic species provide all that’s necessary for visitors to make associations, create scenes, simulate and imagine action, and engage in conversation.

The plastic menagerie is housed in a zebra-striped toolbox, which also contains brief information sheets about featured creatures. Based upon the arrangements I’ve found while checking the table’s animal inventory, a popular pastime involves matching models with respective information sheets.

Giraffe and zebra miniature models
Giraffe and zebra miniature models

Novel uses include using the toolbox as a prop. Below the box stands-in for Noah’s Ark with the paired animal models in an orderly boarding line.

Savannah animals arranged in pairs
Savannah animals arranged in pairs

The creator of another scene appeared to imagine toolbox as a mesa with a line of grazers and browsers looking out to scout for predators or perhaps greener feeding grounds.

Savannah animal models
Savannah animal models

If the replicas’ proximity to dioramas containing life-sized taxidermy mounts invites discussion of scale, the plastic menagerie’s mix of carnivores and herbivores certainly leads to talk of predator and prey relationships. Below a dramatic visitor-constructed scene features a circle of full grown plant-eaters protecting their young from approaching meat-eaters.

Savannah animal models
Savannah animal models

Patrick McShea works in the Education and Visitor Experience department of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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Evolution of the Diorama

African Wildlife watering hole diorama at CMNH

An Indoor Zoo

Did you ever walk through the zoo and have the frustrating experience of not seeing the animals? Perhaps they were sleeping or hiding out under a rock on a hot summer’s day, for whatever reason–they were not visible.

Our halls of North American and African wildlife allow visitors to see the exotic animals in their natural habitats through expert taxidermy and beautiful background scenes created by artists. Visit anytime of year, anytime of day to see a replica of a Baobab tree towering over a rhinoceros, a zeal of zebras cautiously gathered by a watering hole, and a group of mountain goats precariously perched in their native steep, rocky terrain –all on the second floor of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The dioramas have been a staple of our museum for decades, but in the 1920′s they became an example of how museums must evolve with changing cultural attitudes. Our museum changed the display of its wildlife almost 100 years ago as Americans embraced the importance of conservation.

A current exhibition at the museum, “Art of the Diorama,” gives some cultural and historical context to our second floor dioramas.

Many American natural history museums opened and grew alongside the public’s blooming interest in nature in the mid to late 1800′s. Exotic animals were a natural fit to fill the halls of these new institutions. At the time, however, most museums
displayed animals in rectangular glass cases or on shelves with little to no foliage or background.

taxidermy giraffe being assembled
A giraffe being prepared for display at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

 

As a new conservation movement gained traction, it inspired curators to reevaluate the display of their collections. In the 1920′s, the art of the diorama emerged. In an effort to give context to their animal specimens, museums began to depict them in their natural environment. Through painted background, native plants, and the inclusion of other animals, these new dioramas told a “biological story.” One that curators hoped would help the public understand that animals were not singular objects for display, but living creatures whose needs are worth protecting.

For more information on the evolution of our dioramas, visit “Art of the Diorama” on the first floor of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.