Press

MAMMALS REVEALED EXHIBIT OPENS JAN. 29TH AT NYS MUSEUM – Mammals Revealed: Discovery and Documentation of Secretive Creatures opens Saturday, January 29th at the New York State Museum.

Located in Crossroads Gallery through December 31st, the exhibition shows how scientists study wild mammals and share their discoveries. Visitors are led through the diverse toolbox of techniques used by field biologists with a series of photographs, video and displays of scientific equipment, as well as a variety of animal specimens. Among the specimens is the world’s second largest polar bear, on loan from the University of Alaska Museum, spanning 9 feet from left to right paw.

The exhibition shows how artists transformed scientific information into detailed works of art appearing in the field guide, Mammals of North America by Dr. Roland Kays, the State Museum’s curator of mammals and Don E. Wilson, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. The book, published by Princeton University Press in 2003, is the first of its kind to cover all 442 species of mammals north of Mexico and includes more than 1,000 detailed color illustrations. The process of making a field guide is detailed with original artwork and a diversity of Museum specimens, from shrew to bear to musk ox. Visitors will also learn about some recent mammal discoveries.

In the Research section of the exhibition, the 7-foot-high “Funnel of Knowledge” displays objects used to collect reams of data that are then analyzed and funneled into a concise scientific paper. Photographs and videos also show scientists using these techniques to study animal signs, and to monitor, capture and process mammals to gather vital information.

The collaborative process between artists and scientists in the creation of illustrations for the field guide is shown in the second section of the exhibition. This area includes individual illustrations, preliminary artist’s sketches and the Museum specimens on which the artwork is based. The many specimens include a variety of shrews, squirrels, bats, caribou, and a large mounted whale vertebrae that visitors will be able to touch. Illustrating the range of colors and characteristics that scientists must consider within a single species is a display of four “black bear” skins that are actually shaded from black to blonde.

The exhibition’s Species Today section uses photographs, maps and charts to show how many species of mammals there are in the world, which mammals have gone extinct where, and how often new mammals are still being discovered.

A guide on the Mammals Revealed exhibition for the visually impaired will be available at the Museum’s front lobby desk. Copies of the field guide Mammals of North America will be available for sale in The Museum Shop.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation’s longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.