Description
The University of Catania's Museum of Zoology, founded in 1853, is the oldest science museum in Sicily: in an Art Nouveau building on Via Androne, built especially for it, it displays animals from all over the world, many of them outside display cases, just a few steps from the visitor.
Among the largest pieces are a polar bear, a Canadian moose, a tiger, lions, zebras, kangaroos and koalas, none of them caught in the wild. The bird collections number about 1,500 specimens, including hummingbirds, parrots, birds-of-paradise and many Sicilian species; then shells and thousands of insects.
The star is a stuffed elephant: Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia gave it in 1889 to King Umberto I, who donated it to Catania. Before ending up in the museum it lived for a while in the Bellini garden, the Villa Bellini of the locals.
Among the largest pieces are a polar bear, a Canadian moose, a tiger, lions, zebras, kangaroos and koalas, none of them caught in the wild. The bird collections number about 1,500 specimens, including hummingbirds, parrots, birds-of-paradise and many Sicilian species; then shells and thousands of insects.
The star is a stuffed elephant: Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia gave it in 1889 to King Umberto I, who donated it to Catania. Before ending up in the museum it lived for a while in the Bellini garden, the Villa Bellini of the locals.