Wildlife and Animal Museum Promotes Nature

Wild animals found dead in nature are taken to a wild life and animal museum with the help of academics and Trakya University Biology department displays the animals in the university, aiming to raise awareness to wildlife.

The biology department academic Beytullah Ozkan said to Anadolu Agency there are many wild animals living near and around Edirne and many of them are found dead from car accidents. The aim is to raise awareness to prevent these kinds of accidents. The dead animals are taken by the villagers and given to the academics because the academics wanted to make a wildlife animal museum to raise the awareness. Ozkan said the animals are sometimes used in biological and scientific research.

“There are many animals that die from car accidents. We use taxidermists to display these animals,” he said.

Noting there are many animals in the museum, Ozkan said their aim is to display these animals with a right purpose.

Water monkeys, wild reed cats, foxes, moles, squirrels and foumarts are some of the animals in the museum, said Ozkan, adding there are also skeletons.

Ozkan said the museum raised awareness in the village and now the villagers are more aware of the wildlife and how wildlife is important for nature. Noting that they go in the village and speak to people and leave their contacts, Ozkan said, we want them to tell us about the animals and bring them to us if anything happens to them.

“While speaking with the villagers, we see that they have been very careful with the wildlife, thanks to the information they learn from us and the media,” said Ozkan.

Learning to live with wild animals With this move, the villagers do not attempt to kill wild animals when they see them, he said. They scare these animals and tell academics they need help to learn to live with these wild animals.

That’s why we need to help them, said Ozkan. “We leave our contact details and want them to get in contact with us if they need help with the wild animals.”

The academics also give information to the villagers about the animals and educate them. “We give them information on reptiles, vertebras, other animals and biology.” For example the museum team has started to display an Alacalı foumart that was found dead in Sazlıdere Village last year. This is an important move when wild life animals are facing extinction, he said. For example, the Alacalı Foumart is one of the rare species in the world and face extinction. The team has examined the animal and decided that it was hit by a car.