Melbourne Museum Melbourne Museums Animal Collection

Yoshistar888

Yoshistar888

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5+ year member
In my opinion the Melbourne Museum is one of the most underrated places for a zoo nerd in Melbourne.

There are five areas with permanent live animal collections varying in size and depth. There are also special displays of the vast offshow collection of the museum.

I will tackle them from smallest to largest in size with special exhibitions at the end.

Oceans: While mostly taxidermy animals, the area does contain a small singular tank with a few fish species and many invertebrates. Unfortunately I have no idea what species they are.

Ancient Australia: One of my favourite sections of the nature and science hall, this has displays varying from fossils to animatronic dinosaurs and everything in between and has a singular tank with a few Australian Lungfish.

Indigenous Australia: Although there are no live animals in the actual indoor segment there is a small outdoor garden with Short Finned Eels which are fed daily.

Bugs Alive!: dedicated to invertebrates (or if your lucky like Chilidonias, Thorny Devils as well). This area has a wide range of native (and a few exotic) invertebrates including but not limited to.

Leaf ant (really cool exhibit with a moat)
Various aquatic invertebrates.
Giant Millipedes
House Flies
Red back spider
St. Andrew’s Cross spider
Other orb weavers
Mexican Red Knee Tarantula
Baboon Tarantula
Salmon Pink Tarantula
Meat ants

A wide array of stick insects, kaytids, spiders, grasshoppers, cockroaches, beetles and others.

The main reason I made this thread was to highlight the Forest Secrets gallery, which is a walkthrough exhibit with many terrariums and aquariums as well as free flying birds and free roaming skinks. The species list is as follows

Aquarium A: Eastern Long Neck Turtle, Silver Perch

Aquarium B: Tupong, Flat Headed Galaxias, Common Galaxias.

Terrarium A: Eastern or Blotched (can’t remember which) Blue Tongue Lizard.

Terrarium B: Southern Water Skink (it always eludes me) and Spotted Tree Frog.

Terrarium C: Stick Insects.

Free ranging animals:

Reptiles: Cunningham’s Skink

Birds: constantly being swapped and interchanged but in the last few years, these species have been spotted, I will also show the likelihood of the visitor seeing them.

Buff Banded Rail: Guaranteed (ubiquitous and easily seen)
Wonga Pigeon: Highly Likely
Eastern Whipbird: Likely
Red Browed Finch: Moderate
Satin Bowerbird: Moderate
Yellow Tuffted Honeyeater: unlikely
Masked Woodswallow: unlikely
Tawny Frogmouth: Nearly impossible

There’s also signage for Crimson rosellas but I have never seen one.

Special exhibitions:
Recently (late last year) I’ve seen a a discovery centre with Growling Grass Frogs, Pobblebonk frogs and a Stimsons Python.

Also late last year there was a gecko exhibition with four species of gecko.

saltuarius cornutus (Northern leaf tailed gecko)
strophurus ciliaris (Northern Spiny Tailed Gecko)
nephrurus amyae (Rough Knob Tailed Gecko)

The rarest of them all being two amazing specimens of
Carphodactylus laevis or the Australian Chameleon Gecko. I have photos of all four if wanted in the gallery.
 
I only wish they turned the Melbourne Museum into a Natural History Museum and then opened another Museum-museum since its not particularly large and its best exhibitions are all nature focused.
 
toothlessjaws said:
I only wish they turned the Melbourne Museum into a Natural History Museum and then opened another Museum-museum since its not particularly large and its best exhibitions are all nature focused.
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Don't forget some of the tragic taxidermy specimens in there, especially the demonic marbled cat.
 
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I visited the Melbourne Museum and thought that it was as good a zoo as a museum. The forest aviary is wonderful. We watched a male satin bower bird building his bower. The insect zoo was terrific too. Any zoo nerd should make this place a destination while in Melbourne.

I didn't have a chance to visit the Melbourne Zoo or the aquarium, but between those, Healesville, Moonlit Sanctuary, and the Melbourne Museum, it's a world-class zoo town.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Don't forget some of the tragic taxidermy specimens in there, especially the demonic marbled cat.
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One of the early curators was an anti-evolutionist so he insisted the taxidermy should make animals, especially apes, as demonic as possible.
 
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I'm a bit torn with how I feel about the museum. The building is terrific and the live animal areas are pretty spectacular, but I'm disappointed with the dinosaur areas (now relegated to hallway), especially given Victoria is world-famous for its polar dinosaurs.

I also wish it made better use of its taxidermy collection particularly the Australian ones: an American Museum style diorama hall for Australian fauna would be nice. Those thylacine specimens deserve more.
 
toothlessjaws said:
I'm a bit torn with how I feel about the museum. The building is terrific and the live animal areas are pretty spectacular, but I'm disappointed with the dinosaur areas (now relegated to hallway), especially given Victoria is world-famous for its polar dinosaurs.

I also wish it made better use of its taxidermy collection particularly the Australian ones: an American Museum style diorama hall for Australian fauna would be nice. Those thylacine specimens deserve more.
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As someone’s who’s been to the Museum of Natural history in NYC, I much prefer Melbourne zoos presentation of taxidermy specimens. Although I agree the Thylacines should be in a diorama.

My disappointment is the slow removal of on display live animals but it's still excellent for a museum, and their special displays are magnificent.

Aren't all the dinosaurs on display at Melbourne Museum replicas?
 
Yoshistar888 said:
As someone’s who’s been to the Museum of Natural history in NYC, I much prefer Melbourne zoos presentation of taxidermy specimens.
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Wow! really?!!! I absolutely love the AMNH. Those dioramas are beautiful. I think we have very different tastes. ;)

Yoshistar888 said:
My disappointment is the slow removal of on display live animals but it's still excellent for a museum, and their special displays are magnificent.
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As much as I love live animals, I'm surprised how much focus there is on that at Melbourne. Its certainly not what I expect from a museum.

Yoshistar888 said:
Aren't all the dinosaurs on display at Melbourne Museum replicas?
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Yes. certainly all the Chinese dinosaurs are. If I recall in the 80's Melbourne taught a Chinese team how to do the casting process with a bunch of their fossils in return for the right to keep casts of each for themselves - or something like that. Thats why Melbourne has such a great collection of Chinese dinosaur casts. But I'd imagine all the Victorian dinosaurs fossils would be stored at the museum. Personally I don't care so much if they are real thing or reconstructed casts on display - I just think its as missed opportunity our own museum doesn't have an exhibit focusing on our own dinosaurs - especially given their uniqueness as polar species.
 
toothlessjaws said:
Wow! really?!!! I absolutely love the AMNH. Those dioramas are beautiful. I think we have very different tastes. ;)


As much as I love live animals, I'm surprised how much focus there is on that at Melbourne. Its certainly not what I expect from a museum.

Yes. certainly all the Chinese dinosaurs are. If I recall in the 80's Melbourne taught a Chinese team how to do the casting process with a bunch of their fossils in return for the right to keep casts of each for themselves - or something like that. Thats why Melbourne has such a great collection of Chinese dinosaur casts. But I'd imagine all the Victorian dinosaurs fossils would be stored at the museum. Personally I don't care so much if they are real thing or reconstructed casts on display - I just think its as missed opportunity our own museum doesn't have an exhibit focusing on our own dinosaurs - especially given their uniqueness as polar species.
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Agreed about the native dinosaurs also I remember when the dinosaur hallway opened they had an animatronic Mimi which would just walk around.
 
Visited Today, here’s a roundup on what their collection looks like at the moment, I cannot be bothered to write out Bugs Alive! As I’ve probably forgotten things but if anyone would like to know if specific species are/were held there let me know

The Pond in the Millarri Garden was closed, this normally contains Murray River Turtles, Shortfin Eel, Silver Perch and Tandanus Catfish.

Bold species are signed but not seen (but plausibly still there)

Forest Secrets

Aquatic Creatures:
Common Galaxias Galaxias maculatus
Silver Perch Bidyanus bidyanus
Southern Pygmy Perch Nannoperca australis
Eastern Long-necked Turtle Chelodinia longicolis

There are other species signed but they are long gone and have not been seen by me in about 15 visits over the last five years.

Terrarium 1:
Southern Stony Creek Frog Litoria lesueuri
Euastacus sp

Terrarium 2:
Southern Water Skink Eulampurus tympanum
Growling Grass Frog Litoria raniformis
Eastern Banjo Frog Limnodynastes dumerilli

Terrarium 3
Blotched Blue-Tongue Lizard Tiliqua nigrolutea

Terrarium 4
Unsigned Stick Insect sp

Log Exhibit 1
Myrmercia pyriformis

Log Exhibit 2
Social Huntsman Spider Delena cancerides

Free Roaming Animals:
Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsaltria australis
Satin Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Australian Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis
White-browed Woodswallow Artamus superciliosus
Eastern Whipbird Phosphodes olivaceus
Musk Lorikeet Glossopsitta concinna
Purple-crowned Lorikeet Psitteuteles poryphyrocephalus
Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus phillippensis
Common Bronzewing Phaps chalcoptera
Wonga Pigeon Leucosarcia melanoleucia
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater Lichenostomus melanops melanops
Gippsland Water Dragon Intellagama lesuerurii howittii
Cunningham’s Skink Egernia cunninghami

600 Million Years

Australian Lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri
 
aramacao said:
I contacted the museum by email a while ago and can confirm that they no longer keep thorny devils. It's a real shame, because they were the main reason for visiting this place. Do you think it's worth visiting despite this loss? Are there currently more animals living here?
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Definitely worth visiting, admission is only $15, there’s all the animals mentioned on my latest post plus an ever-changing rotating display of native and exotic invertebrates which is the best in the country.
 
Yoshistar888 said:
Definitely worth visiting, admission is only $15, there’s all the animals mentioned on my latest post plus an ever-changing rotating display of native and exotic invertebrates which is the best in the country.
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My initial idea was to visit it, so I'll follow your advice and visit it on the same day as the aquarium, since I think the two visits on the same day are perfectly compatible.
 
aramacao said:
My initial idea was to visit it, so I'll follow your advice and visit it on the same day as the aquarium, since I think the two visits on the same day are perfectly compatible.
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They are, I’ve done it myself on a couple occasions. If you’re only interested in the live displays, the museum should only take an hour and a bit at most but while you are there they have some cool other stuff too, some dinosaur casts, fossils of Australian megafauna, Devonian fish, an extremely pretty selection of rocks, minerals, gemstones, meteorites and gold nuggets, a huge Blue Whale skeleton, a taxidermy section for native wildlife and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, it’s truly a magical place.
 
New gallery opened September 20:

Something wondrous is coming to Melbourne

The exploratory Our Family space will showcase hundreds of taxidermied animals – many of which were part of Melbourne Museum’s much loved Wild gallery – and reveal the human connection to all other living things through the ‘tree of life’.

Most exciting is the addition of Bong Su (Asian elephant) and Kiani (hybrid orangutan) from Melbourne Zoo.

Melbourne Museum taxidermy exhibit: How scientists brought back Melbourne’s most famous orangutan and elephant

 
aramacao said:
I contacted the museum by email a while ago and can confirm that they no longer keep thorny devils. It's a real shame, because they were the main reason for visiting this place. Do you think it's worth visiting despite this loss? Are there currently more animals living here?
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That's really quite unfortunate!! Is there anywhere else in Australia that keeps the species?
 
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