Natural History Museum (Thessaloniki)

View from outside

The Natural History Museum in Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece is in the grounds of the Zoo on Kedrinos Hill in the Hilia Dendra district. It opened in 1994, its purpose being to show the public the various species of fauna in Greece. All the animals and birds are displayed in natural attitudes and are in themed groups.

Inside the museum, the guide shows visitors a wide variety of birds, mammals, skeletons, bones, reptiles, and rocks. There are eight showcases displaying the mouth of the Axios River, a typical forest in Macedonia from 100 m to 1,000 m above sea-level, rock samples, stuffed owls and eagles, a snowy landscape at alpine level, skeletons and bones of mammals and birds; and two showcases containing highland reptiles and lowland reptiles.

The first showcase shows the fauna of the Axios delta, an area which is protected by international conventions and has an ecosystem similar to that of the River Evros. The area is home to waterbirds (many types of duck, stork, and heron) and numerous animals, even jackals, which have disappeared from other parts of Greece.

In the second showcase we see the wildlife on a typical mountain in Macedonia, particularly as it takes shape at different altitudes between 100 m and 1,000 m above sea level. The display includes the homes of animals (badgers, foxes, rats, moles) and a number of birds.

In the third showcase are rocks from the Cyclades, while the fourth displays the raptors of Greece, both nocturnal (long-eared owl, eagle owl, barn owl) and diurnal (marsh harrier, magpie, Levant sparrowhawk).

In the fifth and sixth showcases, visitors can see the reptiles of Greece, both those living in the mountains and those that keep to the plains.

The seventh showcase portrays the food chain, showing a pine marten hunting a squirrel, a snake catching a mink, a mink catching a lizard, and a fox hunting water rats. Opposite there is a replica of a dolphin which lived in the Thermaic Gulf until ten years ago, and corals, a lobster, a crayfish, crabs, and sponges; and the eighth and last showcase contains the skeletons of numerous animals and birds. From the skeletons on display it is possible to determine the age and the sex of each animal and whether or not it suffered from certain diseases.^[1]^[2]

Fifth showcase
First showcase
Second showcase
Sixth showcase

References

Museums in Thessaloniki

Archaeological	Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki Museum of Ancient Greek, Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Instruments Museum of Plaster Casts Prehistoric Antiquities Museum of Thessaloniki

Byzantine and ecclesiastic	Crypt of Saint Demetrius Museum of Byzantine Culture White Tower of Thessaloniki

Ethnological/historical	Atatürk Museum Goulandris Natural History Museum of Thessaloniki Balkan Wars Museum Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki Macedonian Historical Museum Museum for the Macedonian Struggle Natural History Museum War Museum of Thessaloniki

Folklore	Folk Art and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia and Thrace

Art museums/galleries	Art Gallery of the Society of Macedonian Studies Cinema Museum of Thessaloniki National Bank of Greece Cultural Center Design Museum of Thessaloniki Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art Municipal Art Gallery (Thessaloniki) Museum of the Macedonian Art Society Museum of Photography Thessaloniki Music Museum of Macedonia State Museum of Contemporary Art

Industry/technology	Broadcasting Museum of Thessaloniki Railway Museum of Thessaloniki Science Center and Technology Museum "Noesis" Water Supply Museum

Education/sports	Museum of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Museum of the Cultural Foundation of the Greek Diaspora Museum of the National Center of Maps & Cartographic Heritage Plaster Casts Museum of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Thessaloniki Olympic Museum

List of museums in Greece

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, August 12, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.