I had to share my office today. But, to give my new officemate credit, she was quiet with an admirable attention to personal hygiene.

Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

Meet Percival, the African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus, or Mbwa mwitu in Swahili!). Dubbed "Percival" by workmate Bad Jojoasaurus (less quiet, but also good on the personal hygiene front), she was brought from the depths of the Mammalogy collection for the use of a visiting artist, Bronnie. We've had visiting artists before, sketching and photographing all sorts of things from swans to wombats. We do enjoy these visits, and we particularly like seeing the resulting artworks!

Artwork: Bronnie  Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

A lovely sketch, don't you think? Certainly restores some of the life to the old girl. Apparently these animals have the highest bite force (in relation to their body mass) of any Carnivora mammal... I think I'm glad Percival is a particularly quiet specimen.

The latest in the adventures of Leon...

A visitor from Israel was particularly taken with Leon the Chameleon recently. He was leaning against Leon's enclosure, entranced by him.

"He's a chameleon," I offered.

"I know," came the response, as he pointed to his shoulder - and he should know, he's got one tattooed on his arm.

I ran for the camera.

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

An enquirer came to the desk with an envelope, asking us to identify the reptile skin within.

This lovely elderly woman had found the specimen in the gardens at a local school, and was concerned as to what reptiles might be lurking where children play.

I opened the envelope and regarded the yellowed, torn skin. "Hmm. Doesn't look like snake skin to me," I said, poking it with a finger. "Ah well, we'll send it through to our herpetologist, and see what she can tell us!"

Once the enquiry was properly documented and receipted, the enquirer headed off, leaving my colleague and I to have a closer look.

"This doesn't even look organic to me." I leant in, and poked it again. "It almost looks like an old sausage skin," I said, handing it to my colleague. He looked, raised an eyebrow and took a sniff.

"You know, it smells like rubber. Perished rubber. And it's oiling through the paper."

"...what? No. AUUUUGH I TOUCHED IT!"

Once my colleague had finished mocking me between bouts of hyperventilation and picked himself up off the floor, he took on the task of emailing the enquirer with the news that the "reptile skin" was actually a discarded piece of rubbish, and definitely not any sort of snake skin - well, except in a coarse, vernacular, metaphorical sort of way.

Not exactly what the poor enquirer expected... but at least it provided us with some welcome levity, and a good reason to use our antibacterial hand gel.

Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

...*shudder*.

Sometimes we're contacted by eager collectors wishing to replenish our supplies of live bugs. Such was the case on the last day of the year, when a young woman contacted us to ask if we needed any Spiny Leaf Stick Insects. Sure enough, our Live Exhibits team was happy to take her boxload of bugs, each of which resembled a pile of sticks and leaves. In fact these critters are so adept at camouflage that they even move like leaves. Cool!

How many can you spot?

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria

You can learn more about these and other bugs at Museum Victoria's Bugs website. You can also see lots of similar critters on display at Melbourne Museum's popular exhibition, Bugs Alive. Yep, they're alive.

This morning we had a visit from one of the Museum's conservators - those talented people who care for the things we keep. She was helping us install three new object drawers in the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre, two of which feature medals from international exhibitions held at the Royal Exhibition Building and the other of which contains numerous medals awarded to Hans Irvine, the pioneering vigneron and politician known as the "Wine King of Australia." The conservator used her electric drill more carefully than anyone we've seen!

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria

These beautifully-preserved objects can now be viewed by members of the public every day of the week, along with the many other treasures housed in our object drawers. The medals are part of the Museum's very large Numismatics and Philately Collection, explored in more detail at the the Coins and Medals website. There's also an infosheet available online for those wanting more facts about the 19th-century exhibitions themselves. Exciting times!

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria