Silent and still they tell a moving story

Sri Lanka’s first Natural Museum opens:

By Dhaneshi Yatawara

The room is filled with numerous animals. The leopard is in an attack mode in one corner of the room and in another corner two palm cats and a black monkey sit in one group. You may find a rare and precious animal - the black leopard, inside a big glass compartment. Part of a movie? Not really. This is what you may find inside Sri Lanka’s first natural museum at Giritale.

Last week, Agrarian Services and Wildlife Minister S.M. Chandrasena opened this for public view and today it has become a hot spot for wildlife enthusiasts visiting the area. Though the main museum in Colombo has a separate section with stuffed animals, especially those endemic to the country, we do not own a natural museum.

The new Natural Museum is situated in the premises of the Wild Life Training Centre in Giritale. “With this natural museum the Wild Life Department was able to fulfil a long felt need in training and research sectors of the country,” said Assistant Director of the Department and the head of the training centre Gamini Samarakoon.

The museum has a number of stuffed animals belonging to many species including rare and endemic ones. All are well preserved keeping the natural appearance intact in the most possible way.

The most outstanding piece is the black leopard that was found dead, caught in a trap in Ma Ulpotha, Deniyaya in the Matara district. The carcass was found on March 6, 2009. The postmortem revealed that its death occurred due to the severe damage to its kidneys as the wire noose of the trap tightened around its waist. Sri Lanka lost one of the most valuable species because of illegal poaching.

Today this black leopard standing still in the natural museum silently tells of its tragic end depicting the misery such animals are facing. Led by Wild Life Ranger A.L. Jayasooriya the taxidermy division of the training centre is the prime mover behind these wonderful creations. “We have highly skilled taxidermists and Jayasooriya is one of the very few experts with long years of experience in taxidermy,” Samarakoon explained.

The dead specimen of the black panther was collected by Wild Life Ranger Ajith Gunatunga. Jayasooriya and Wild Life Guard K.G.P. Nanayakkara mounted the animal which is now exhibited in the Natural Museum.

Taxidermy, the act of preserving dead animals for display, is used today mostly for studies though this was earlier used to create hunting trophies. It is recorded in history books that by the 18th century almost every town in the Western countries had a tannery business as hunters began bringing their trophies to upholstery shops where the upholsterers would actually sew up the animal skins and stuff them with rags and cotton.

The term “stuffing” evolved from this crude form of taxidermy. Today professional taxidermists prefer the term “mounting”. In the early 20th century, taxidermy began to evolve into its modern form under leading artists of the Western world. Taxidermy was developed in to a professional field which was capable of re-creating anatomically accurate figures incorporating every detail of the animal.

Contradicting its foundation that always highlighted man’s superiority over animals, today taxidermy focuses on re-creating animals in postures that are considered more appropriate for each species.

“Preserving the natural look to the level best is crucial in today’s taxidermy,” Samarakoon added. “Taxidermy is a major part every wildlife officer has to learn.

Thus trainees made these stuffed animals and we only had them as a collection,” Samarakoon said explaining the start of the Sri Lankan Natural Museum. Under the direction of the present Director General of the Wild Life Conservation Department Dr. Chandrawansa Pathiraja it was decided to create a Natural Museum using available resources. “We have tried our best to exhibit animals that people rarely see even if they visit a park. Most of the endemic species are displayed here,” Samarakoon added.

Each creation highlights the importance of every animal to the environment while highlighting the death threats on them, especially from humans. “A Guide will always be available for visitors to get more details on the animals apart from what we have on display,” he said. For the Wild Life Department this is just the start of a long journey. Using the already available local expertise wildlife authorities believe they can acquire an advanced Natural Museum in the years to come making people more aware of our precious wildlife and its conservation.

Pix: Susantha Wijegunasekera