We had a curious donation the other day - a well-dressed gentleman came in bearing a heavy plastic tub full of ice and one sadly-deceased echidna. He had found the echidna's body on the road when driving. He hadn't wanted to leave what was an almost-perfectly intact specimen for the crows to eat, thinking that the Museum might have a use for it.

Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

Given that many carrion-eating birds are killed by cars whilst dining on previous roadkill victims, this was probably not a bad move! Sadly, according to an echidna monitoring group, one in five sightings of an echidna is of one killed on the road. The spines of an echidna, which are actually modified hairs, are sharp and strong enough to pierce a car tyre - not that this really helps the echidna.

Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

Our Collection Manager came to collect the echidna, remarking as he did so that he wasn't able to tell us whether it was a male or a female, as unless the echidna has young in her pouch, they are fairly indistinguishable on the outside. Australian Echidnas are one of the few species belonging to the order of monotremes. Two species of echidna and the platypus are the only egg-laying mammals, or, as one young visitor to the centre described them, "animals dat lay eggs and boopfeed their babies!" They have other traits that distinguish them from other mammals, including their lower body temperature, slow metabolism and relative longevity.

That is, unless they try to cross a road.

Photo: Siobhan Motherway  Source: Museum Victoria

This attractive item came into the Discovery Centre today, identified by the enquirer as a Sioux Dance Fan, beaded and trimmed with Eagle feathers.

His purpose in bringing the fan in was to have the type of fur used in the trim identified. The only hint he could offer was that it was from North America, and that the animal products in the fan had been sourced from roadkill.

Well, at least it's a beautiful outcome from an unfortunate demise!

Whilst we don't specialise in North American mammal hides, our stalwart Mammalogist dutifully came down to inspect the item when he had a moment. It wasn't beaver - too coarse. It wasn't dog - too fine. His conclusion? Hare. Another mystery solved!

What?

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

No really, there is an explanation...

So, the enquirer who inspired Philip's posting below about the yellow and worm-like beastie was standing in the centre having his planarian identified when he noticed our "pre-loved" stuffed quoll, sitting high up on a shelf, leering down on us all. And by pre-loved, I mean dusty and earless. We brought him down from his position on high so the enquirer could do a bit of leering back. It was a leer-off. I think the quoll won.

The quoll remained down with us for the next few hours, during which the Museum's Manager for Corporate Risk and OH&S wandered past and also could not help but be drawn in by the quoll's extremely intense gaze... or maybe it was just his dusty and earless appearance, since the subsequent question was: "When was the last time that quoll was vacuumed?"

Said quoll is now out the back of the centre awaiting his chariot/goods-trolley to the "Day Spa"/Preparation Department for some apparently much-needed R&R (restoration and rejuvenation).

After some beachcombing on Phillip Island, Judith came to the Discovery Centre with her finds - white, fragile, gorgeous things reminiscent of lettuce. She wanted to know if they were fossils, or not, so we referred her items to an expert in marine invertebrates, who passed them on to an expert in mammalogy, who confirmed that they were - fragmented seal skulls! 

Photo: Philip Thiel  Source: Museum Victoria

Most folks' workspaces would contain a water-cooler, stationery cupboard, box of tissues, maybe even a fake plant here or there...

While the Discovery Centre is really no different with respect to these common office dwellers, I have found myself wondering today why I'm working away in the company of a pile of animal bones sitting in front of the cupboard behind me.

After a brief rummage, I discovered that, along with Philip and Jo, I am also working today along side a kangaroo, a wombat, a wallaby and a couple of koalas.

Of course, this is not an ongoing arrangement - these skeletons have been brought to the Discovery Centre in fulfilment of a collection access request from a member of the public who wanted to photograph the bones as part of their private research. Collection access requests can be made here. 

Having said that, I really, really hope no one wants to access anything from the arachnology collection...