This museum is located in a building also used by the University of Bologna. Although it doesn’t look like much from the outside it’s one of Italy’s most important zoological museums established in 1860. Hundreds of exhibits of animals on display include rhinoceros, lions, rare African birds, poisonous snakes, skulls and skeletons from the Aldrovandi, Cospi and Marsili collections. The famous English taxidermist Roland Ward also greatly added to this museum. Children will love it here since the animals are so life like and up close – for the little ones some of the animals may just be too ‘close’. There’s very few visitors here so you will feel like the place is all yours.

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This is one of the most important zoological museums in Italy thanks to its large size and number of collections preserved and on display. It was established in 1860 and moved here to its present location in Via Selmi in 1936. New acquisitions were added to the original nucleus of the museum, formed from the Aldrovandi, Cospi and Marsili collections.

Just inside the front door are these animals ranging from a rhinoceros to a polar bear. There are many other displays here particularly heads of other animals from the safari and upstairs is a scene quite characteristic of the savannah showing 3 busts of lions lying in the grass.

Along this first corridor of glass displays are birds from Africa including ones from Ethiopia and from the southern part of the Sahara desert. The biggest of course is the ostrich which measures up to 2.5m in height compared to one of the smallest only a few inches tall.

The preparation of the first 900 collected works that came from the famous English taxidermist Roland Ward is still being studied. He was also responsible for the research on the cheetahs.

The biggest part of the museum belongs to the collection of vertebrae and invertebrates once studied by Ranzani and dating from 1815-60. There’s also a similar collection from Mozambique which were studied by Bianconi, Bertonloni and others.

More recently the ethnological and malacological collections have been greatly increased and re-arranged so that they can more easily be consulted by scholars. At present the ornithological collections, the African trophies and dioramas are on display on the ground floor. Systematic collections of the most important groups of animals are arranged on the first floor together with the Altobello collection, which includes amphibians, reptiles and mammals.

The rest of the building is made up of offices and laboratories. Occasionally there are some glass displays of works in progress but this is strictly for study purposes and not for public viewing. On the third floor is the Comparative Anatomy Museum but not shown here.

In general though the works on display here are well laid out, easily visible and obviously educational for children. Unfortunately, there’s very little information on offer unless one of the lectures or in-house professors prove otherwise and act as your personal guide.

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Arrangement of preserved animals in zoological museum

the various methods of arranging animals and how animals are preserved

 

Question posted 23rd October 2009 by saah isaac.

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