The Animal Attic

The Animal Attic is at the top level of the Otago Museum building on Great King Street, which opened on August 11, 1877. At this time the Museum was lit by skylights and windows that flooded the gallery with natural light. Because of this, many of the specimens became faded over the years. The Animal Attic underwent a major redevelopment project in 1979, with the goal to restore the gallery as close as possible to its original layout.

The Gallery Layout

The layout reflects a Victorian view of evolution, with the specimens displayed in a linear fashion from single celled animals to human beings, seen by Victorians as the pinnacle of evolution. To follow this line, the gallery needs to be viewed by first examining the inner cases, then the outer ones both in an anti-clockwise direction.

The inner cases start at the lowest end of the evolutionary line, with Protozoa (the single-celled animals). They are mostly microscopic and parasitic animals.

Following anti-clockwise the line continues with Porifera (sponges), Cnidarians (corals, sea anemones), Mollusca (shell fish, snails, octopus), Echinoderm (starfish, sand dollars) and finally Annelids (segmented worms, leeches).

The evolutionary line continues around the inner cases on the opposite side of the gallery featuring Arthropoda (insects, crabs, spiders; anything joint legged with an exoskeleton).

To follow the line from here, the outer cases starting with amphibians (frogs, newts/salamander), Reptilia (crocodiles, lizards, snakes turtles), and Aves (birds) can be viewed, following around in the same direction as the inner cases.

The outer cases on the opposite side of the gallery start with Monotremata (echidna, platypus), and move on to Marsupiala (koala, kangaroo) through to mustelids (badger, otter, skunk). The final category is mammals, ending with a human skeleton.

Most of the specimens on display today date back to when the Otago Museum originally opened in 1877, making them almost 130 years old!