Room: DP319
Contact person: Martin Häckel
The FLD collection room of zoological taxidermy was established primarily for educational purposes. It contains a number of legally held zoological taxidermy of several basic types. The goal is to make available to CZU students and employees an overview of the representatives of Central European fauna in particular, and also to provide an insight of the results of the taxidermy students’ work.
Currently, several hundred taxidermy mounts of considerable financial and huge scientific value are deposited in the collection. They are constantly replenished and carefully catalogued. From the original intention of compiling a collection of taxidermy of Central European birds (Aves) and mammals (Mammalia), the collection is growing mainly thanks to the plastination programme (see Plastination Laboratory) and also by the otherwise more difficult taxidermy of cold-blooded vertebrates living in our country, i.e. reptiles (Reptilia), amphibians (Amphibia), ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii), and round-mouthed vertebrates (Cyclostomata).
The main part consists of mammal and bird preparations, namely taxidermy (taxidermy mounts, study skins, etc.), osteological (skeletons, skulls, etc.) and others (horns of even-hoofed ungulates, plaster casts of tracks, etc.). The mounts are captured in both basic (standing, sitting) and dynamic positions (jumping, swimming, flying mounts of bird species).
The arrangement of taxidermy in the collection room tries to follow the dynamics of taxonomy, i.e. individual taxa (animal species) are arranged, if possible, in the relevant systematic categories, e.g. canids (Canidae), followed by Mustelids (Mustelidae); in the case of birds, Gallinaceous birds (Galliformes[MS1] ) are arranged from left to right, followed by waterfowl (Anseriformes) to songbirds (Passeriformes).
In suspended flight taxidermy of bird species, emphasis is placed on the internal and external anatomical representation of a specific species; there is always a conspecific osteological mount hanging under the flight suspension taxidermy mount, i.e. a skeleton of the same species as the taxidermy mount placed above it.
All taxidermy mounts are registered, identified to species and subspecies, and marked with an identification label (mostly hidden, for educational reasons the identification label is not visible from the outside, only the names of higher taxa such as families and orders remain visible). Taxidermy mounts of taxa subject to a special regime according to the Act on Specially Protected Species of Plants and Animals (section III animal species from the list of Decree 395/1992 Coll. and its amendment No. 175/2006 Coll.) are represented in the prescribed maximum numbers and are subject to special records.
