I realize now that I totally lied when I said we didn't go to a single museum while in South America. We did actually go the Museo Acatushún as part of our Penguin tour. The museum, inaugurated in 2001, is a working laboratory for the study of marine animals.
But let me back up a second. Of all of the tourist trips one can do in Usuiah, the penguin tour is by far the most popular. It is an expensive trip, and consists of an hour long bus ride to Haberton Estancia, a tour of the research facility and afore mentioned Bone House, then a quick zodiac ride out to Isla Yecapasela, where we were to spend about an hour wandering among the cute flocks of Magellanic and Gentoo penguins.
The research facility seems worthy of a post, so we'll do that first, then on to the penguins.
Basically, the research labs collects specimens of marine birds and mammals that are found deceased, strips them to their skeletons, mounts some of them in the museum and then uses the remainder for research.
This is the facility where they show you the neatly labeled and boxed bones awaiting research. They apparently don't sell the skeletons (despite the fact that it seems they have quite a few?) and the students who do research on the skeletons must come here to do the work. They do have quite a few rare skeletons, so it does seem an place you might want to park if you were interested in studying marine skeletons.
The facility had a charming little Christmas tree decorated with wee bones tied on with bright red ribbons. It really seemed too personal to photograph, but it does make me smile to think about it. Everyone has their own way of celebrating the holiday.
But, how exactly do these bones arrive all neatly boxed and ready for study? It is a long and interesting process. Smelly, too.
This is the Bone House.
I'm not going to get the process exactly right, but here's the general drift:
You start by cutting up the bodies and places pieces in the barrels at right (the blue ones), where the flesh rots off. There might be water and some kind of solution involved, but like I said, I wasn't planning on being tested at the end of the tour.
There are whale skeletons in the background. It was really interesting to wander through the museum and see the differences in structure between different species of whale, dolphin and shark. Even as an uneducated observer, there were clear differences.
At some point, the bones are removed from the barrels and are burned/boiled to remove whatever flesh is left.
You get something like this. Okay, so who volunteers to sort through this and put the skeletons back together properly? Right there, I can imagine what summer interns spend the majority of their time doing.
Although, first, you have to scrape any flesh bits that insist on clinging to the bone off. The Bone House, not surprisingly has an unappealing odor.
Not the easiest work.
But all in the interests of science.
Tomorrow: Finally! The Penguins!
Ahhh, that takes me back to Vert Zoo in college. For project we had to prepare 8 museum mounts of mammels and then boil and prepare four of the skulls. My roomies were not too fond of that last chore. I did all the skinning and stuffing down at the horse barn, but there was no stove there so the skulls had to be done in the apt. Got a 99% - mislabled the field vole slightly.
Different subject - check out: http://badeventer.blogspot.com. Just found it today and laughed ALMOST as hard as I do at your books.
Posted by: Jenny | January 19, 2012 at 07:40 AM
Ah, Jen, that is gross! Although, since I boil my chicken carcasses to make stock, what's the difference, really? It's just that the Bone House didn't smell much of anything like my kitchen (even on a bad day!). Bad Eventer is hilarious!
Posted by: Ellen | January 20, 2012 at 05:14 AM
Where do you find such places to visit?
Posted by: Debbie Hanson | January 27, 2012 at 09:27 PM