repurposing deceased zoo animals

M

MIchael Han

New Member
I was visiting the Rancho Mirage Living Desert this week and while touring their animal hospital I had an idea. Does anyone offer the service to zoos to take the remains of a deceased animal and go through the process to provide a full skeleton of which can be given back to the zoo or to schools for educational purposes? I think kids and adults would appreciate viewing the skeleton structure of different creatures.

Does anyone offer these services?
 
When I was an education zoo volunteer, some of the specimens on our trolleys came from zoo animals.
 
MIchael Han said:
But you do not know of a specialized company out there offering this service, correct?
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Correct.
It is generally done by good local taxidermists.
If you are considering it as a new enterprise I wonder if there is really a market.Zoo visitors can be notoriously squeamish
 
Dead animals are either donated to a local museum / science center or incinerated. There is generally not enough animals dying to support a specialized service, and specimens are in low demand, either. Normally such specimens cannot be traded legally or zoos don't want it.

Curiosity: many years ago I heard of an auction of specimens made from former zoo animals, and many went to TV and theater props, like a leopard skin.
 
Agree with the comments above. Zoos do use bones especially skulls for education, however a very small number and once they have a couple really don't need more. Museums have their own specialist staff. One fairly new use of animal remains is gonads etc for "frozen zoos".
 
Jurek7 said:
Dead animals are either donated to a local museum / science center or incinerated. There is generally not enough animals dying to support a specialized service, and specimens are in low demand, either. Normally such specimens cannot be traded legally or zoos don't want it.

Curiosity: many years ago I heard of an auction of specimens made from former zoo animals, and many went to TV and theater props, like a leopard skin.
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I was only considering the process for the zoo, not to monetize off of the zoo.
 
While I don't know any zoos that have the facilities, many museums of natural history have a room full of dermestid beetles that will hungrily reduce a carcass to bones. Some of these museums have arrangements with nearby zoos giving them an option to take the dead animals to build their study collection of skeletons. Given that scientific institutions often cooperate, I wouldn't be surprised if a museum would provide the service to a requesting zoo for a modest fee or even no fee at all.
 
There is value in preservation for natural history if and when dealing with wildcaught individuals. For comparison sake or otherwise tissue or samples are valuable for zoos as well as for zoo banking or potential AI when done right.
 
The skeleton of Griffy, a male giraffe at Roger Williams Park Zoo, was preserved and donated to the University of Rhode Island. I think it was buried and dug up by students as a class activity!
 
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