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After his return from World War II in 1945, and for the rest of his life, he went on a major hunt somewhere in the world each year. Possibly the animals most often mentioned as favorites among the visitors are the ones we will see here in our abbreviated tour. The Polar Bear is considered to be the most intelligent of bears. Often a hunter will lose sight of his quarry in the snow and ice, only to find the polar bear behind him...doing the tracking! Note the black eyes, nose and mouth...the black pads and claws...since those features stand out sharply in contrast to the all-white landscape, how do you suppose he tricks his prey and manages to get enough to eat?
These are but three of the dozens of stories in this room. You are invited to come and hear more about them! |
With almost 140 individual mounts and no exact duplications
of animals, this is one of the
finest natural history exhibits found in any museum. ![[Are Pointing That Thing At Me?]](rhino.gif)
The Rhino was not scheduled on the trip he took in
1960 in Kenya.
However, when the Game Warden asked for his help in taking down two rhinos which had
trampled crops and huts, killing a native and generally wreaking havoc in the area,
he readily agreed. The story of the tracking of these dangerous animals that led through
tunnels of grass higher than the men's heads, tells of one of the most frightening and
dangerous of all his hunts.![[Burrrrrrrr!]](snout.gif)
The Saiga antelope is an animal that was known to prehistoric man. The most
unusual thing about it is the enormous nose! Like all things in nature, it serves
as a direct link to the animal's ability to exist in its chosen habitat. Found
only in Siberia and on the Russian Steppes, the Saiga must be equipped to handle temperatures
that commonly reach 60 degrees below zero. The large "nose" acts as a warming oven
and allows the Saiga to breathe in the super chilled air. When this mount arrived
in 1988, the Red River Valley Museum was the second museum in the United States to exhibit
the Saiga. Russia had closed the doors to foreign hunters in 1908, fearing that
the Saiga would becom extinct. How the numbers reached between four and five million in just
80 years is a fascinating story!
Phone: 940-553-1848 Fax: 940-553-1849 e-mail: rrvm1@yahoo.com
last updated August 19, 2008
copyrighted Red River Valley Museum 2007