Southern Vermont Natural History Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1996 |
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| Location | 7599 VT Route 9 Marlboro, Vermont, USA |
| Type | Natural history |
The Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is a cool place to learn about nature! It's a natural history museum located on Hogback Mountain in West Marlboro, Vermont. The museum is surrounded by over 600 acres of protected forest. From here, you can see amazing views of three different states!
The museum started in 1996. It was built around a huge collection of animals called the Luman Ranger Nelson Natural History Collection. This collection has almost 250 different kinds of native birds and mammals from the northeastern United States. It's one of the biggest collections like it in the whole region!
The museum's founder, Ed Metcalfe, wanted it to be a fun place for people to learn about nature. The exhibits mainly show taxidermy (preserved animals). But there are also lots of small, hands-on exhibits for kids. You can also see a cool mineralogy exhibit with rocks and minerals. Plus, they have a variety of live animals that are native to the area!
The museum also offers many programs about natural history and environmental science. They share these programs in Vermont, central New England, and western New York.
Meet the Live Animals!
The museum started bringing in live animals in 1998. They first created a small center for raptors (birds of prey) that needed help. They also added a live trout tank and an exhibit for painted turtles.
Over time, more animal exhibits were created. In 2013, a big home was built for a bald eagle. This was the first of two eagles that now live at the museum.
Most of the wild animals living at the museum were injured. This means they can't go back to live in the wild on their own. As of winter 2015, you can see many different animals at the museum. These include a bald eagle, red-tailed hawk, and red-shouldered hawk. You might also see an American kestrel, screech owl, and Northern saw-whet owl. Other residents include a barred owl, king snake, corn snake, and black rat snake.
They also have several turtles like the painted turtle, wood turtle, box turtle, and snapping turtle. Don't forget the wood frog, tarantula, and hissing cockroaches! And of course, there are trout and other warm water fish. Some animals, like a raven and a domestic rabbit, live off-site. They travel with staff for special educational programs.
The Amazing Nelson Collection
The museum's main collection of preserved animals was put together by Luman Ranger Nelson. He was a naturalist and taxidermist who lived in the early 1900s. His collection includes almost 250 types of birds and mammals. These are all animals found in the northeastern United States. There are over 600 individual preserved animals in total!
This is the largest collection of its kind in Vermont. It's also one of the biggest in the entire region. The collection even has some threatened and endangered species. You can also see many albino (all-white) animals. Plus, there are three types of birds that used to live in the Northeast but are now extinct.
Nelson was born in 1874 in Bernardston, Massachusetts. He lived in Winchester, New Hampshire until he passed away in 1966. He started putting together his collection in the late 1930s. Back then, there weren't many rules about hunting wild animals. This is very different from today! By the end of his life, Nelson had special permits to finish his collection. Today, it would be very hard to create a collection like this. Most of his work was done in the 1920s and 1930s.
