 | This photo, courtesy of the Potomac Museum Group, is of a baby African elephant. At full size, African elephants -- the largest living mammals on land -- can weigh 14,000 pounds. The exhibit explores how African elephants are threatened with extinction. |
The Peabody Museum of Natural History will pay tribute to the world's largest animals in its newest display, "Elephants!"
The traveling exhibit, on view Feb. 12-July 31, combines specimens and recreations with DVD presentations, computer interactives and other hands-on exhibits to tell the story of pachyderms from their early evolutionary history to today's latest research on their complex social interactions.
Over the centuries, elephants have come in a range of sizes. The Peabody exhibition will feature the 13-foot-high Hebior mammoth skeleton, the largest mammal ever to walk the North American continent. Its close relative, the woolly mammoth, will be represented by a full-size model made with $24,000 worth of human hair. Exact in every detail, this model is designed to help visitors imagine what it would have been like to come face to face with this animal, which lived until 3,700 years ago.
The exhibition also looks at some of the smallest elephants. It includes the skeleton and model of a tiny dwarf elephant from Sicily that stood only three feet tall. The limited food sources of the island environment of these dwarf populations were largely responsible for this adaptation. Another tiny elephant on exhibit is the pygmy mammoth from the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. In adapting to their island environment, these elephants grew smaller, with full-grown adults standing only three to four feet tall.
"Elephants!" also looks at the only three pachyderm species alive today: the Asian elephant, the African savannah elephant and the African forest elephant. The largest living elephant, and overall the largest living land mammal, is the male African elephant, which can weigh 14,000 pounds and consume up to 600 pounds of food a day. The exhibition explores how these species are threatened with extinction because of hunting and the destruction of their habitats.
There will be a celebration to mark the opening of "Elephants!" on Sunday Feb. 13, noon-4 p.m. The event will include a variety of presentations, crafts, games and other activities. At 1 p.m., David Reese, a Peabody Museum curatorial affiliate in the Division of Anthropology, will present a talk titled "Pygmy Elephants and Friends in the Ancient Mediterranean: Facts and Myths." Reese has spent much of his career as a faunal analyst studying the animals and animal fossils from the islands of Sicily, Cyprus and Crete, including pygmy elephants and giant rodents. The opening day celebration is free with museum admission or membership. Activities will get underway earlier for members, for whom the doors will open at 10 a.m. To become a member, arrive early and sign up, or do so in advance by calling (203) 432-5426.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History, located at 170 Whitney Ave., is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. It is closed Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Admission is $7 for adults; $6 for seniors age 65 and older; $5 for children ages 3-18 and older students with I.D. There is free admission for all 2-5 p.m. on Thursdays. Museum members, Yale community members with a valid I.D. and children under age 3 are always admitted for free. The museum is wheelchair accessible. Parking is available in the Peabody Visitor Parking Lot, entrance off Whitney Ave. one block north of the museum; follow signs inside the entrance. For directions, events, or other information call (203) 432-5050 or visit the website at www.peabody.yale.edu.
T H I S
New Peabody exhibit devoted
to the world's largest animals
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