Zoology

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The zoology collections at Paisley Museum consist of an estimated 3000 specimens. The type of material in the collections is extremely diverse and is comprised of skeletal material, skins, mounted specimens, casts, animals preserved in spirit and microscope slides.

Birds

The bird collection includes just over 300 bird specimens mostly of British birds many collected by George Stout of Fair Isle, a well-known bird watcher who provided bird specimens for a number of museums and institutions throughout Britain, and prepared by Glasgow taxidermist Charles Kirk. Other specimens include skulls and skeletons, including bones of the extinct giant Moa bird of New Zealand, eggs and a small nest collection.

A few of the specimens still in the collection today were donated by members of the Paisley Philosophical Society for the opening of the museum in 1871 and of special significance to the collection is a pair of the now extinct, Passenger Pigeon donated to the museum by John Bell.

Mammals

Paisley Museum holds a small collection of mammal related material including some mounted specimens, specimens in spirit, skeletal material, horns and trophy heads.The majority of the specimens are
of British origin, but there are a few Australian mammals in the collection, all that remains of the J.W. Craig collection and a few exotic specimens from other regions.

The lion specimens on display in the museum today were originally displayed as a ‘The King of the Forest’ exhibit with male, female and four cubs in a natural setting, the male lion ‘Buddy’ was bought from E. H. Bostock and the full display prepared by Charles Kirk taxidermists in 1929. The tiger specimen was also prepared by Charles Kirk taxidermists and a drawing of this specimen was used to illustrate one of his work catalogues.

Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish

This collection is mainly made up of casts of fish species, but there are also some mounted specimens, some specimens preserved in spirit and some skeletal material including the rostrums (snouts) of several sawfish species (a relation of sharks found in tropical and sub-tropical waters) and the jaws of a White Pointer shark.
The collection of fish casts covers mainly British species found in fresh waters and marine species found in the seas around Britain. The reptile collections consists of both British and foreign material.

The biggest object is a cast of a Leatherback Turtle, caught between Kintyre and Arran in 1959. The specimen, a male measuring 66”(1.676m) by 54.5”(1.384m), was originally taken to Calderpark Zoo where it unfortunately died.
After death it was taken to Kelvingrove Museum and mounted as a specimen for display. A cast was made of the specimen and now forms part of Paisley Museum’s natural history collections.

The amphibian collection is small, made up of only 20 specimens, nearly all of which are native species and the majority of which are specimens preserved in spirit.