At the very top of the Museum is the magnificent timbered Victorian gallery, the Animal Attic.

Animal Attic houses one of the world’s finest displays of the full systematic arrangement of worldwide invertebrate and vertebrate animals. Of the 27 orders of birds worldwide, you’ll find examples of 26 of them in animal attic! Insects make up 75% of the worlds different animal species, and the gallery has an impressive variety of species from around the globe.

You can also find biographies of the most important scientists who have unravelled the natural history of southern New Zealand.

The animal attic houses many talked about specimens such at the rat king and the curious chevron mouse deer, but two of the most talked about animals in the gallery are our ‘Lawrence lions’ – find out more about their unfortunate demise and how they came to be at the Otago Museum.

Downloadable Children's Activity
Nocturnal Animals