Cat Tien National Park has a museum. It's tucked away in one of the administration buildings, not fare from the entrance to the Wildlife Rescue Center. I loved going in there. And I wish I had time to work on the museum alone several weeks.
The CTNP museum faces similar situation as the Zoological Museum as the University of Montana, and probably the same problems as many small museums around the world:
Lack of funding, lack of space, need for interpretation (non technical signs and labels). Ongoing challenges for care and maintenance of the specimens.
It seemed like a secret treasure chest and I'm so glad we went in.
They've displayed the skeleton the last rhinoceros that lived in the Park, whose body was found in 2011. This species is now extinct in Vietnam. My understanding (which is often wrong here) is that this is the skeleton of the actual last rhinoceros. Looking at it with this information made me feel EMOTIONS. Anger, sadness, hopelessness, impressed that such an unlikely animal existed in the first place, a strange out of body experience that I could be so close the body of this famous individual rhino.
There were monkeys, hornbills, pickled fish and amphibians, some bears, some guar remains, and an impressive insect collection that probably doesn't even scratch the surface of the park's biodiversity but is stunning.
I suggested that we take some pictures of the pinned insects and put the pictures in the Ecotourism center to promote visitors to the museum.
The museum needs a source of income. Tourists can buy a ticket to visit the museum but I don't know how many people go there. I am also not sure how all the park departments get their revenue.
Maybe Emilie Graslie of the Field Museum could come and fix it up. I thibk an artist in residence be a huge benfit here. Must look for funding sources.
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