An animal exodus

The Natural History Museum of London is getting ready to move 28 million of its precious specimens to a new state-of-the-art home. Imagine moving tens of millions of delicate animal and plant specimens, gathered from all across the world, over the centuries. Some are as big as a bus, some so tiny you need tweezers to pack them. Some are millions of years old. How to move 350 taxidermy tortoises? The biggest weigh half a tonne. Then there’s the ten-metre anaconda. The team may have to get him out through the lift shaft. What if moths get in? What if something gets lost?

Dr Jeff Streicher, senior curator in charge, Amphibians and Reptiles and Richard Sabin, principal curator, Mammals talk us through this logistical puzzle on a mind-boggling scale. When the collections eventually arrive in their new home, scientists and researchers present and future will be able to explore the specimens’ vast amounts of data, much of it yet untapped, using the latest digital, analytical, and genomic technologies.

The writing of Charles Darwin was read by Jo Stone-Fewings, in Beagle Diary (BBC Radio 4, 2006). Reproduced here with kind permission from Brill Productions, Jo Stone-Fewings and Professor John Van Wyhe ( Darwin Online).

Presenter: Stephen Coates
Sound engineer: Arlie Adlington
Music: Stephen Coates
Producer: Monica Whitlock
A Storyscape production for BBC World Service

(Photo: Giraffes at the Natural History Museum Research Facility. Credit:Trustees of the Natural History Museum)