KUCHING, July 23: The Sarawak Museum Department is looking to cement its place in the Malaysia Book of Records for the longest non-stop taxidermy work that will last 24 hours.
The department will organise a workshop on taxidermy between July 27 and 28, in conjunction with the International Museum Day 2019, at the Natural History Museum at Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg here, as they embarked to enter the book of records.
“The main objective of the workshop is to give opportunity for the public to learn and understand the complexity behind the scenes of taxidermy.
“Taxidermy is a process of cleaning, preserving, and filling the skins of dead animals with special materials, chemicals and tools,” the department said in a statement.
Participants will be showed different methods used in preserving specimens such as mounting animal specimens and casting of fish species, the statement continued.
“The mounting process, where animals are mounted, displayed and arranged in a realistic manner to make them look natural and lively, can take up to four hours to complete for one specimen.”
The department pointed out that in specimen preservation, taxidermy is vital for research and study purposes.
“Although some of the animals still exist, while some had long extinct, it is important for the future generation to know the existence of different animals and species in Sarawak and Borneo as a whole,” it said.
Members of the public, especially students, are welcome to the event and admission is free. — DayakDaily
