Animals

From stuffed animals to great collections of bones, get the inside track on UK museum natural history collections with Culture24 news, reviews, events, websites and much more...

a photo of a path through rolling fields and woodland

Museums at Night Report: Bat walking through the scented woodlands at Hatchlands Park

For Museums at Night Amy Strike heads through the bluebell-scented woodlands of Hatchalnds Park for a bat walk in search of Barbastelles and Pipistrelles...

A photograph of a piece of amber with an insect in it

Prized jewellery and prehistory: Amazing Amber comes to the National Museum of Scotland

The 20th anniversary of the film Jurassic Park has inspired the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh to put together the country's largest ever exhibition of amber.

A photo of a series of sculpted pandas

Pandamonium gives artistic support to WWF at The Lightbox in Woking

Created by leading contemporary artists in an exploration of beauty and fragility, a panda-based collection of works in Woking will support conservation efforts by the WWF.

A photo of a sign bearing various climate change slogans

Our Time in Ice reflects on a fragile spring at Brighton's ONCA Gallery

The second exhibition at a gallery attuned to climate concerns is a strikingly simple and multi-disciplinary one, says Mary Stevens.

Spiders for lunch and Nordic Food Labs as the Wellcome Collection plays part in Pestival

An infestation of art and events at the Wellcome Collection, where Insects au Gratin and Insects vs Humans are on the menu as part of the phobia-exploring Pestival.

A black and white photo of a kind of white castle above an arid rocky landscape

Photographer Sebastião Salgado's Genesis at the Natural History Museum in London

Having seen deforestation on his native Brazilian farm, acclaimed photographer Sebastião Salgado went to five corners of the earth in pursuit of a portrait of the natural world.

An image of a black and white drawing of a multi-tentacled sea creature near a boat

Loch Ness Monster expert reveals Science and Sea Monsters at the Fisheries Museum

A University of St Andrews statistical geologist who has spent 16 years pursuing the science behind some famous myths reveals his findings at Fife's Scottish Fisheries Museum.

an x-ray showing a toy bicycle in the oesephogus

Foreign Bodies unites swallowed swords and bicycles from UCL vaults

Curated from across University College London's four museums, a display of surgical curiosities and ancient artefacts ponders all things alien and inorganic to our bodies.

A photo of a strangely-shaped section of animal bone with annotations surrounding it

Curator's Choice: Professor Jenny Clack chooses an extraordinary sea-bream bone

The Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Museum of Zoology explains why a bone from the collection is one of the most extraordinary she's ever seen.

A photo of a bird among reeds with brown feathers, a green face and a long thin beak

Curator's Choice: Professor Andrew Balmford on the near-mystical Great Bittern reed bird

As part of a guest series from the University of Cambridge, take a look at a reed-dwelling bird which is thriving again after an uncertain few years.

A photo of various butterflies and insects against a white background on museum display

This Unrivalled Collection: The Hunterian's First Catalogue revisited in Glasgow

A century after Captain James Laskey did a fine job of compiling Scotland's first museum catalogue, the three-toed sloths, stones, shields and Mastodon teeth are back.

A photo of a curator inside a room full of illuminated slides smiling at the camera

Curator's Choice: Mark Carnall on the Micrarium at the Grant Museum in London

Obsolete in teaching, limited for research use, poorly documented and a "nightmare" to interpret, Curator Mark Carnall tells us about the Grant's wondrous office of slides.

A photo of a female curator assembling a series of tiny slides on an illuminated wall

"Really beautiful" Micrarium fills old office with tiny wonders at Grant Museum of Zoology

A couple of thousand slides form one of the most unusual exhibitions ever made at the University College London museum, including beetles, squids, fleas and whales.

A close up photo of a tiger with green eyes and its mouth slightly open revealing teeth

Extinction: Not the end of the World? asks Natural History Museum

A Great Auk, a Dodo and an Irish Elk are part of the Natural History Museum's new display. And one of the tiniest specimens on show proves it's not all doom and gloom.

a photo of a dramatic archway through an ice cap

Competition: Win a copy of Sebastião Salgado's new book Genesis courtesy TASCHEN

With the new Salgado exhibition wowing visitors to the Natural History Museum We have a copy of the acclaimed Brazilian photographer's TASCHEN monograph to give away to one lucky winner.

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