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Preparing a pelican specimen to join the museum collections

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is Vancouver’s only natural history museum, dedicated to creating a shared sense of community and wonder.
Beaty Biodiversity Museum

Beaty Biodiversity Museum The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is Vancouver’s only natural history museum, dedicated to creating a shared sense of community and wonder. The museum puts UBC's natural history collections, with more than two million specimens, on public view for the first time. Among our treasures are a 26-metre-long blue whale skeleton suspended in the Djavad Mowafaghian Atrium, the third-largest fish collection in the nation, and myriad fossils, shells, insects, fungi, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and plants from around British Columbia and the world.Come visit us - we’re located at 2212 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC. You can find more info at

Pelican specimen being worked on for the Beaty Biodiversity Museum Collection

The collections of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum are constantly growing. Recently, a pelican specimen that had been frozen intact for preservation became available to us. The Cowan Tetrapod Collection has very few pelican specimens. The last one was prepared in the 1980s, the one previous to that was in the 1950s. Ildiko Szabo, Honorary Assistant Curator, undertook the significant task of preparing the specimen for long-term storage and study. This involves removing the internal organs, muscles, and as much fat as possible to prevent decay. Much of the skeleton is removed as well, with the exception of the skull and beak and the bones in the wings, feet, and legs. The body is then filled with a combination of sawdust, cotton batting, and other dry materials. One wing was detached and spread out, allowing researchers to study the size, shape, and feathers on the wing. The rest of the body is arranged compactly, but in a way which allows access to the major features of the bird. The bones that were removed can be kept as a partial skeleton.

More on the museum website. In a future blog update we will try and get a photo of the finished specimen, so check back!

Also stay tuned for information about the Museum's 1 year anniversary celebration coming up in October. We are just working out the details and will be posting them on our site soon.