THE TAXIDERMY Children’s camp is one of the many activities the Ministry of Youth and Sport has been hosting for the past four years at the National Museum to encourage children on their annual August vacation to use their leisure time gainfully.
Taxidermy is the art of mounting or reproducing dead animals for exhibition, or for other sources of study, and can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Acting Administrator of the National Museum, Mr. Elford Liverpool said that this year’s camp, which commenced two Mondays ago (July 12), has seen an overwhelming response from both parents and children, and that intake to date stands at a whopping 35.
Heartened by this, he is now urging those parents who are interested in having their children participate in the camp but have not yet had them registered, to do so in order that they can catch the second phase, which begins next Monday (July 26) and ends on August 6.
Liverpool said that the children are being trained by qualified and experienced taxidermists in the preservation of animals and plants, and have also been receiving educational and historical lectures on Guyana’s National Museum, biodiversity and the basics of taxidermy.
The camp, it was learnt, has been affording those children who have never been to the interior the opportunity of seeing the various animals that can be found in Guyana.
Liverpool said that members of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) and the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IIC), better known as just ‘Iwokrama’, will be engaging the children in discussions on ethnic harmony, climate change, forest conservation and other issues relating to the environment, and that the kids will also have the opportunity of touring some of the other local museums, as well as the various monuments and historical sites.
The Ministry is catering for a total of over 60 camps this year, to be held in all ten of the country’s administrative regions. (GINA)