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.

Creature Comforts At The Milan Natural History Musem

The Natural History Museum in Milan is classic old school. Huge building from the 19th century, endless halls of artifacts and lots and lots of beautiful dioramas. No antiseptic displays with miles of white walls. Just creatures in their exotic environments.

Starting early. "Get back! It's a hungry Tanystropheus!!"

Digging in the dirt. Humans can be considered animals, even archeologists. Turtles on the hard shell.

Ugly into adorable, a momma manatee with baby calf.

Let's eat. A seagull gets some salmon leftovers from a bear. How about a Polar bear, wearing seal rouge?

Llama train.

Wild Still Life At Washington DC's Natural History Museum

The immersive dioramas are gone, leaving it a bit to one's imagination how to envision some of the world's wildlife in its original habitat. Maybe it's time for a more abstract appreciation.

Polar bear on a ledge.

Furry figures getting emotional.

Getting bug-eyed.

Trying to create the natural order in an unnatural setting.

So who still gets the full environmental treatment? Ancient humans, perhaps in a nod to righting past treatment of the taxidermied animals.