Visiting An Opal Museum (Exit Through The Gift Shop)

Sydney has a cute little opal gem museum, complete with elaborate mineral displays and dioramas that illustrate the dinosaur age when opals were just being born. Or something like that narrative. The museum is actually a shop with museum trappings. No matter, anyone can go and gaze and buy only a memory.

College lecture series or HSN studio? A little confusing, a little kitschy. Take a seat.

Opals are mined! By manly miners! Way back when with a winch and beard or now with lanterns and ear protection.

The dioramas are cool, all lush and unspoiled paradise. Those dinosaurs lived it up.

Rainbows every munchie hour. Big beings, creeping through frame.

"Dino break! Dino Break! Repatriation needed immediately at diorama 12!"

Animal Attractions At The Australian Museum

The Australian Museum in Sydney has a nice collection of taxidermy critters, forever frozen in their poses. It's too bad the animals are no longer home in immersive diorama environments. Now, kind of lost in space.

Following the leader, hopping along.

Dangerous details. Bear claws! Tiger tails!

Contorted ape, concerned cat.

More details, checking out some good hair.

Penguin posse.

Getting Stuffed At The National Museum Of Tajikistan

One of the highlights at the National Museum of Tajikistan is the expansive display of animal taxidermy. Lots of local fauna is featured in natural looking, a bit crowded habitats. Time to go hunting.

Big sheep with big horns. "We know we're cute."

Falcon with a little lunch. Bloody. Half moose. A nice bit of trompe l'oeil. You work with the taxidermy you have.

Everybody into the pool. More is more, even if some animals would never be seen together. Looking a little like an over-stuffed Bruegel painting.

More sheep, giving the view of their best side. Butt out. Big growl of a wolf.

A little mountain chase between a leopard and sheep.

Dioramas At The Namangan Museum of Local Lore

Usually, the best parts of a regional museum are the old dioramas. The themes, the patina, the ragged glory of how to best indoctrinate youth so many years ago. The Namangan Museum of Local Lore has a great set of old dioramas, full of grand intentions.

King cotton. Namangan is in the Fergana Valley, a major area for growing the crop. Not sure why they're growing dystopian giant cotton that dwarfs the harvesting machinery.

The local fauna is always a popular subject. Maybe those major horns keep you from seeing birds pluck major prey right behind you? Bored boar.

An elaborate set of a mountain road with military vehicle, representing the 1980s era Soviet war in Afghanistan.

More crop props, now for wheat. Fun with photo blow up backgrounds. Antelope, perhaps saiga.

Frothing wolf. "I need the dentist!"

Dioramas And Dead Things At The Andijan Museum Of History And Culture

What's a museum in Uzbekistan without a swashbuckling diorama or a parade of taxidermy? A boring museum. Hooray, Andijan's museum is definitely not boring.

Fly like an eagle. Or hawk. Or falcon. Or brown bird. Let's be safe with identifying it as some sort of brown bird.

Starting at the beginning, the Stone Age Man. Check out the mystery animal, monster, thingy that's about to emerge and attack. Rabid wombat? Moving forward in time, a depiction of a Silk Road era walled city. Love how the 2D painting does most of the 3D lifting.

More fun with 2D vs 3D. An Uzbek uprising in 1916. Basically, a mural with some columns and one and a half carts as foreground props.

Bird, perched on a massive stick jutting out of a mountain. Rats. Squeeze too hard and the stuffing pops out. And you might lose your talon. Ouch to everyone.

Shake that tail feather. With a little bush support.

Fun Taxidermy At Khudayar Khan Palace

Many attractions in Uzbekistan have been restored and then left with the quandary of what to put in all the lovely, empty rooms. Some fancy furniture, maybe textiles? Frequently, stuffed animals fill the void. Taxidermy rocks!

The Khudayar Khan Palace in Kokand devotes a little space to some dead creatures. The combination of old, stuffed animals against what looks like extreme blow ups of low-res photographs makes for a bit of a surreal impression.

Display cabinets with additional creatures that didn't make the cut into a case.

Hello eyeless...what? Deranged duck.

Owl, perhaps waiting on a tootsie pop.

Fierce pheasant. Another fuzzy animal. A mini bear with a shag overcoat? Fashionable wolf?

Back in the marsh, this duck did a bit of an over-bleach. Oh, the vanity.

Bugging Out At The Milan Natural History Museum

The meek dioramas may inherit the Earth. The Natural History Museum in Milan may have miles of dioramas filled with the world's grandest beasts. Think elephants, rhinos, gorillas, maybe a paleontologist. The place also made room for a few little buggers. How cute.

Swamp dragonfly.

Bugs in a jungle, bugs in some sort of post-apocalyptic, white hellscape. Glad there's glass between us.

Who says there's no life in a desert?

More hellscape, more adorable homes for bugs. Frog went a-courtin'. For dinner.

Do you ever wonder what would happen if a lobster and a cockroach had a baby and...?

Missing Animals At Milan's Natural History Museum

Sometimes you just don't want to look at the center. The dioramas at the Natural History Museum in Milan are great. Beautifully staged, lit, full of regal specimens. And then the eye wanders.

Plant. With monkeys.

Yak with birds. Side of camel.

Stags fighting and a vocal spectator.

Braying boar. The delicate feet of a mountain goat.

Elephant, rising up. And out of frame.