A snow leopard - a unique exhibit - has appeared in AltSU’s Museum of Nature

16 July 2021 Department of Information and Media Communications
On July 15, the Laboratory "Museum of Nature" of the Zoological Center of the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology of Altai State University was replenished with a unique exhibit.

Along with rare zoological exhibits, a centre-piece has appeared in the display of the Museum of Nature at Altai State University - a stuffed snow leopard created by famous zoologist-taxidermist Dmitry Ryzhkov. It is a painstaking work which took more than three months. Since it was originally an animal skin, used as a carpet, certain difficulties arose when creating a stuffed animal, as it lacked some fragments. But due to his professionalism the scientist made the impossible possible.

The skin of a snow leopard was given to Altai State University by the Department of Hunting Management of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Altai Krai last autumn as an exhibit in the Museum of Nature of AltSU. The valuable trophy was confiscated from poachers in 2015 in Altai Krai, and the animal was killed in the Altai Republic.

“A lot of exhibits from the Museum of Nature are specimens of dead animals given by our Management to the University, which, according to the law, should either be destroyed or given to organizations such as the university for research and educational purposes,” explained Evgeny Baturin, Head of the Department of Accounting and Use of Fauna Objects of the Department of Hunting Economy of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Altai Krai. “The request to make taxidermy products from the skin of a snow leopard to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Altai Krai was sent by Rector of Altai State University Sergey Bocharov. The request was granted, and the result was a truthful exemplar of the Red Book animal. In this form, this exhibit can be stored for more than a hundred years and will now serve for the benefit of university science."

It is worth noting that the snow leopard (irbis) is still one of the most poorly studied feline species in the world. Very little is known about the biology and ecology of this rare predator, and its number within the modern range is identified loosely. The snow leopard is included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and has the status of a rare or endangered species in all 12 countries it inhabits: Russia, Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bhutan.

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