hello all, i am a scientific assistant at a private secondary school in Australia, and i am interested in preserving a number of specimens for the classes to observe in the future, and for display purposes. I am asking for your expert knowledge on how i'd go about doing this, preserving specimens, such as reptiles, spiders,etc, just little animals. specifically, i am just after the chemical names that you use to preserve these kind of animals, and if they are the same for birds, cause i may have to do a few birds later on.
thank you very much, an email would be most helpful.
thanks in advance
steve
How you preserve them depends on how you want them to look. For bird study skins, most teachers just skin and put Borax on the skin to preserve it, then stuff with whatever material you want (cotton, polyester fiber, etc). Many use small wooden rods for a backbone on birds and small mammals. That is a simple way to preserve study specimens. But the animal will not look like a truly mounted specimen because it will not be in an animated pose, will have no eyes, etc.
For reptiles, many people freeze-dry them. Or you can skin them and tan the skin, then remount or just keep the skin for display. Some people store specimens in formaldehyde (such as fish, amphibians, even small snakes). But Bruce Rittel sells a new, non-toxic product called Preservz-it, which is safer than formaldehyde in terms of toxicity. ( Rittelsupplies.net )
If you are preserving skulls, most people boil using sodium carbonate in the water to make meat removal easier. You can buy that product from WASCO (www.taxidermy.com)called Sal Soda. Or try Trypsin 5100 from Rittels.
Both these suppliers have online ordering and have many more products, check them out, ask the company and they will tell you want you need.
you can preserve small specimins just by keeping them in enclosed jars with alcohol. I have a baby mouse that I found years ago in a jar and the alcohol has stayed clear and the mouse is still perfect.