Letaba Elephant Museum Gets Full Skeleton
LETABA (Kruger Times)- The Letaba Elephant Museum hopes to have installed an exciting new exhibit by the end of this year; a complete elephant skeleton. The bones are currently being prepared at the University of the North, where they have to dry out before they can be mounted.
Museum personnel have wanted to upgrade the displays for some time and enlisted the aid of field rangers to find a suitable skeleton. Along with the skeleton, all the posters in the museum will be redone to provide the most up-to-date information on elephant behaviour, reproduction and population dynamics. Research and management policies will be included in the new exhibits.
To house the new information, the display area will be extended by removing an existing partition wall. A large mural will be painted on the southern wall, illustrating the lifecycle of elephants. More interactive exhibits are planned, that will allow children and other visitors to the museum to touch the displays.
Films will still be shown from Monday to Saturday at 19h00, and a lounge section will be added where visitors can relax. Coffee, magazines and books will be available.
The big draw card for many of the visitors, the ivory of the "Magnificent Seven", will remain in the museum, but additional information will be provided on 20 living elephants, whose tusks are shaping up to rival those of Mafunyane and Phelwane. Visitors to the park can help contribute to this information through an upcoming photographic competition that is looking for visitor photos of any elephant with substantial ivory.
Mandleve's tusks, thought to be the heaviest tusks ever found, will also be brought from Skukuza and included in the display.
The Letaba Elephant Museum is part of the Goldfields Environmental Centre, and was built in 1993. It is located in Letaba camp, in the heart of mopane veld, where both breeding herds and itinerant male elephants roam. The original artwork and displays were mainly designed and executed by Rob Wishart, with help from Robin Kearny and Jack Swanepoel.
The museum's aim is to create public awareness of the elephant's role in the environment, but is also responsible for ongoing environmental education. School groups visit the museum and are given educational talks by the staff, covering pollution, animal diversity, ecology and the history of the park.
by Melissa Wray and Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times
Museum personnel have wanted to upgrade the displays for some time and enlisted the aid of field rangers to find a suitable skeleton. Along with the skeleton, all the posters in the museum will be redone to provide the most up-to-date information on elephant behaviour, reproduction and population dynamics. Research and management policies will be included in the new exhibits.
To house the new information, the display area will be extended by removing an existing partition wall. A large mural will be painted on the southern wall, illustrating the lifecycle of elephants. More interactive exhibits are planned, that will allow children and other visitors to the museum to touch the displays.
Films will still be shown from Monday to Saturday at 19h00, and a lounge section will be added where visitors can relax. Coffee, magazines and books will be available.
The big draw card for many of the visitors, the ivory of the "Magnificent Seven", will remain in the museum, but additional information will be provided on 20 living elephants, whose tusks are shaping up to rival those of Mafunyane and Phelwane. Visitors to the park can help contribute to this information through an upcoming photographic competition that is looking for visitor photos of any elephant with substantial ivory.
Mandleve's tusks, thought to be the heaviest tusks ever found, will also be brought from Skukuza and included in the display.
The Letaba Elephant Museum is part of the Goldfields Environmental Centre, and was built in 1993. It is located in Letaba camp, in the heart of mopane veld, where both breeding herds and itinerant male elephants roam. The original artwork and displays were mainly designed and executed by Rob Wishart, with help from Robin Kearny and Jack Swanepoel.
The museum's aim is to create public awareness of the elephant's role in the environment, but is also responsible for ongoing environmental education. School groups visit the museum and are given educational talks by the staff, covering pollution, animal diversity, ecology and the history of the park.
by Melissa Wray and Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times
posted by Kruger2Canyons.com at
Friday, October 29, 2004
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