There’s a family of Bison in Colorado that hasn’t moved a muscle in over a century. They’re housed in the archives of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. And one of them is missing.
Every single thing in the museum’s collection – all 4.3 million pieces – has its own number. That includes these bison, cataloged as specimens Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5.
So how did these bison get these numbers? As the curator of vertebrate zoology, John Demboski cares for this taxidermied herd, among many other specimens in the museum.
“These were part of a founding collection for the museum,” Demboski said. “There were three founding collections here at the museum back in 1900.”
