Take a last look inside animals at Science World

On Thursday (March 10), Vancouverites can be forgiven for thinking there are a couple of humanoid wild animals on the loose in the downtown core. They’ll actually be models made up to look like a giraffe and an octopus, and they will be scampering around Nordstrom, Telus Garden, and possibly the SkyTrain, according to publicist Pamela Saunders.

She told the Straight by phone that their mission is to draw attention to the final days of the Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out exhibition, which concludes on March 28 at Science World. Two artists from the John Casablancas Institute, Jenika Wallis and Samantha St. John, will paint the models.

“It will be highly visual,” Saunders promised.

The first two Body Worlds displays in Vancouver featured human beings who had been preserved through plastination, which was developed by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens in the 1970s. This process involves removing water and soluble fat from the body and replacing it with polymers such as silicone rubber.

Science World curator Friderike Moon told the Straight by phone that the exhibit of more than 100 animal specimens also involves preserved skeletons. But unlike with the human exhibit, in which all the creatures essentially looked the same, there’s far greater diversity in this show because each animal is different.

Visitors to the show can learn how animals’ muscles, tendons, ligaments, nervous systems, respiration, digestion, and reproduction differs.

She noted that people have been most impressed by the large bull, but a preserved camel has also generated a great deal of discussion, particularly among school groups. According to Moon, the students often ask what’s inside the camel’s hump, believing that it might be where the animal keeps its water supply. It’s actually mostly made up of fat, which helps them store energy.

However, camels have evolved in other ways to retain water as they live in the desert.

“If humans drink too much water, our red blood cells would pop,” Moon explained. “But the camel’s red blood cells expand and they keep all the water. Kids are fascinated by that.”

Visitors to the exhibition might wonder where the animal specimens came from. Saunders said that Body Worlds, which was founded by von Hagens, has established partnerships with zoos and veterinary clinics that donate animals’ bodies after they die.

Also on Thursday, visitors to Science World are being encouraged to bring drawing materials. That’s because an artist will be at the Animal Inside Out exhibit from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. for what is being billed as a “life drawing evening”.