Gin TrapWest Highland Museum Warning – some visitors may find this object distressing Gin traps were spring-loaded traps that snap shut on an animal’s limb when triggered. They were commonly used for catching small animals, including rats in places where grain...
Taxidermy OspreyGrantown Museum Fossil evidence shows that osprey had been in Scotland around twelve thousand years ago, at the start of the Mesolithic period. However, during the nineteenth century, this migratory bird was hunted to the point of extinction in Great...
Ammonite FossilSeaboard Centre Ammonite fossils are extremely useful to geologists because the species evolved rapidly. This means each different species had a short and distinct lifespan providing important information about the strata (layer of rock) each one is...
Taxidermy StoatGrantown Museum Taxidermy is the practice of preserving and mounting animal skins in lifelike postures and was very fashionable with Victorian collectors. This taxidermy specimen would have been of interest because it shows the stoat in ermine – in...
Whale VertabraTarbat Discovery Centre A vertebra is a section of a spine. This belonged to a sperm whale, and measures over a metre across. It is believed to belong to a whale that became stranded on the rocks near Portmahomack in 1796. The dead whale, which was...
