Can you Taxiderm a Whale?

Here we are in on San Juan Island in Washington State to attend a wedding and run into taxidermy yet again!  This Harbor Seal is on display at the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor.  We spent along time admiring his fur and looking at the claw ridges in the flippers that look very similar to the bone structure in our own hands.  Note how the seal is placed in a natural setting diorama with rocks and pretend water underneath.  This afternoon we made eye contact with a real harbor seal from the low bluffs near Dead Man’s Cove.  It was easier to imagine what the rest of his body looked like underwater, because we had looked closely at the harbor seal in the museum.

It is hard to preserve a whale like this orca.  However, you can construct a life size replica.  Seth spent a fair amount of time under its belly looking up.  I think it made an impression, because he asked me to buy some orca bath toys for him.  We went to the hotel after our visit.  Seth immediately drew a bath and played orca pod with his new hand size wales.

Sometimes when wales are really large it is easier to understand their shape by looking at replicas which are much smaller than life size.  Here you can see the straining teeth of a whale, these are called baleen.  The suspended miniature replica shows you how the whale would look moving through the water.  I would call this a diorama of sorts because it shows you natural and constructed whale elements that tell a story.

Skeletons are good for explaining how whales work as well.  Especially vertebrae because the vertebrae of a whale are very similar to your own vertebrae.  Their fin bones are not so similar.  The fin bones show us where whales veered off the evolutionary path from us (or we from them).  Skeletal reconstructions are really helpful when paired with skinned reconstructions.  This combination allows us to see the volumetric exterior shape of the animal in contrast with the spacial internal construction of it’s frame.  I think this is a good learning leap for anyone, because we rarely have those two points of reference in the same vicinity.  Besides it’s good practice to study things from the inside out.

For those of us who are young, or young at heart they had costumes to wear.  I liked pretending I was a fish.  It was interesting to spent time familiarizing ourselves with the shapes and forms of ocean animals, then “getting our pretend on”.  Playing in the costumes we got to make our own diorama, and get a feel for swimming in someone else’s scales.