Freeze-Drying to Preserve Birds for Teaching Collections
| Autor: | Alexandra V. Shoffner, Margaret C. Brittingham |
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| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Northeastern Naturalist. 20:441-450 |
| ISSN: | 1938-5307 1092-6194 |
| DOI: | 10.1656/045.020.0309 |
| Popis: | Collections of bird specimens are an important resource for teaching bird identification, but acquiring suitable specimens can be problematic. Older collections tend to be preserved with a variety of potentially harmful chemicals; additionally, traditional methods for preparing specimens typically require extensive training. Freeze-drying is a method that involves removing water from specimens via sublimation, and may be an acceptable alternative to conventional taxidermy techniques for teaching collections. We freeze-dried 63 birds and 12 bird parts (i.e., talons and wings) of 44 species salvaged from throughout Pennsylvania since January 2008 using a Taxi-Dry Freeze-Dryer (Freeze-dry Specialties, Inc.). To determine the extent of water lost during the freeze-drying process, we measured the masses of birds and parts before and after preservation. Whole birds that were successfully freeze-dried lost 59.4% ± 0.9% (mean ± SE) of their initial mass, and unsuccessfully dried birds lost 46.9% ± 3.5% of their initial mass. Generally, birds with an initial mass >160 g did not lose enough water in the freeze-drying process to be effectively preserved. We conclude that if proper storage and maintenance conditions are met, freeze-drying can be an effective method for preserving small bird specimens for teaching collections. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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