Virtual Tour
Welcome to the Hefner Zoology Museum's virtual tour. To view a photograph of an exhibit or room, please roll over it in the sketch below.
Main Gallery
Ten exhibits comprise the museum's Main Gallery (100 Upham Hall):
The Vernal Pool: A Spring Phenomenon
This diorama features a vernal pool, a seasonal wetland that provides an essential breeding ground for many amphibians. Modeled after a vernal pool in Adams County, Ohio, the exhibit depicts the activities and interactions among the animals that inhabit this endangered ecosystem.
What's In a Name: Classifying Organisms
Composed of two parts, this exhibit is designed to help visitors understand why and how biologists classify animal life. The first part emphasizes the enormous diversity of the animal world, from insects to mammals. The second part of this exhibit highlights some of our state's most elusive animals in "Ohio: Where the Wild Things Are".
Touch Boxes
Two cedar chests contain many different animal specimens and artifacts--from antlers to fossils to shells--that visitors are welcome to hold and examine.
The Egg Case
Oxford resident Clark Lloyd (1883-1980) built this cabinet to house his extensive collection. It contains a fascinating array of bird eggs from the United States and England that were collected primarily from the late 1880s to the 1930s.
The Naturalist's Desk
A naturalist active in Southwest Ohio in the late nineteenth century might have worked in a space such as this one. The furnishings--desk, chair, and easels--all date to the period, as do the eyeglasses, books, painting, telescope, and microscopes.
The Web of Life
The Web Of Life is a three-part exhibit that explores the ways in which all life is interconnected. Not So Long Ago: The Ice Age in Ohio looks at the web of life through time. Interactions Among Organisms: Predation looks at the web of life among specific animals. Winged Threads: Neotropical Migratory Birds looks at the web of life through space.
Home: We All Live Somewhere!
The Home exhibit features a wide variety of animal homes such as nests, honeycombs, shells, and cocoons. It also explores the concepts of ecosystems and biomes--the larger homes in which humans and other organisms live.
Environmental Modification and An Environmental Ethic
Environmental Modification explores the ways in which all organisms, and in particular humans, modify the Earth and the consequences of that modification. It includes a small diorama of a coral reef and an exhibit that compares artifacts from Native American middens with items found in a contemporary landfill. An Environmental Ethic suggests ways to preserve and protect nature.
The Center Cabinet
The center cabinet of the Main Gallery features many of the specimens in the Museum's mammal collection, including animals familiar to residents of Southwest Ohio, such as raccoons and squirrels, as well as those that are less familiar, such as mink and badger. Several of the museum's most beloved specimens are displayed on top of the cabinet, including the lower jawbone of a mammoth, a manatee skeleton, and a platypus skeleton.
The Cycle of Life
This freestanding diorama depicts the cycle of life in an old field in the Midwest. The model is 12 times larger than life, so visitors get a close-up view of the plants and animals, including a white-footed mouse, burying beetles, an earthworm, wireworms, and nematodes.
Hoofs, Horns, Antlers, and Claws
Adjoining the Main Gallery, the Hoofs, Horns, Antlers, and Claws exhibit highlights the amazing biodiversity of ungulates (hoofed animals) from around the world. An endowment from Richard E. and Dorothy Francis made possible this exhibit, which features an extensive collection of hoofed animal mounts and a large Kodiak bear.
The Paul M. Daniel Classroom
The Paul Daniel Classroom (106 Upham Hall) is a primary gathering place at the Center and is used for group inquiries, hands-on activities, and GREEN Teachers Institute workshops. Exhibits around the room highlight the diversity within animal groups: coral, sponges, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and birds.
The Imaginarium
Designed with young children in mind, the Imaginarium (112 Upham Hall) is an interactive learning space where children explore and learn about animals and habitats. The large ecosystem murals and magnetic animal pictures, animal costumes, model bird nest, decomposing log, and beehive all invite children to play and discover.