Spring Break
Academy of Natural Sciences hosts fair
Mishael Devlin
Issue date: 5/6/05 Section: Sci-Tech
|
Located in the main tent at the fair, the Academy's table displayed literature and artifacts to promote the exhibit, including skulls of a St. Bernard and bloodhound, casts of skulls of a coyote, red fox, grey wolf and the extinct dire wolf, and a coyote pelt. The "Dogs" exhibit, which arrives June 4 and leaves Sept. 5, is a traveling exhibit from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The skulls displayed on Saturday, however, are from the Academy's collection, which is located upstairs in the museum and contains over 17 million animal specimens. Some were part of the Academy's "Lewis and Clark" exhibit, which ran from Nov. 5, 2004 to March 20, 2005.
As demonstrated by Saturday's preview, the exhibit will spotlight wild and extinct species of canines as well as more common domesticated dogs. The purpose of the exhibit is "to explore the history, biology and evolution of dogs and the roles of dogs in human societies," according to the Academy's Web site (http://www.acnatsci.org).
"Once visitors see this exhibition, they will understand dogs in a whole new way," said Academy President James Baker. "The amazing diversity of dogs and their abilities have made them our companions for thousands of years."
In that regard, the exhibit corresponds to one of the main purposes of the Academy, which Education Programs Manager Naomi Echental describes as a devotion to "the diversity of life."
The exhibit has a bigger purpose, pertaining to environmental education. Describing the position of the Academy's employees as "stewards of the world," Changing Exhibits Manager Marie Gilbert said that she hoped the exhibit will teach people "what animals face today due to habitat loss [and that] our duty is not to destroy what is around us."
With a similar goal of protecting animals, the Alliance for Philadelphia's Animals, a non-profit organization, shared display space with the Academy at the fair, hosting pet adoptions and making pet adoption literature available to the public.
The Academy of Natural Sciences, located at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, has been operating since 1812 and is dedicated to using research and education to support the maintenance of a healthy planet.
Be the first to comment on this story