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5. Moving and Restoring Diorama Treasures

Moving and Restoring Diorama Treasures

The Canadian Museum of Nature's spectacular dioramas are three-dimensional, realistic recreations of wildlife habitats, and they've been a valuable part of the museum since the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The backdrops of eight dioramas were painted by Manitoba wildlife artist Clarence Tillenius, who also helped with their design. Over the years they've captivated thousands of admiring onlookers with their realism and fine detail. They're big too! The largest is almost 5 metres high and 8.5 metres long, and weighs more than 2 tonnes.

When these installations were first created, no one thought they would ever be moved. But decades later, renovations to the museum required that they be installed in the new Mammal Gallery on the other side of the building, beyond a vast atrium. Just how were these huge and heavy heritage pieces to be relocated?

Rebuilding these complex habitat recreations took a dedicated team of conservators, scientists, exhibition designers, taxidermists and artists. They documented the thousands of components of the 18 dioramas. They cleaned, reassembled and retouched everything from the background paintings to the flowers and leaves in the foregrounds.

The new Mammal Gallery boasts some attractive changes from its predecessor. The illusion of "being there" is enhanced by better sightlines to the dioramas, non-reflective windows and higher ceilings. More specimens have been added to better tell the story of mammal adaptation. Each diorama is now complemented by large-format touch-screen computers with supplemental, interactive content. There are more hands-on activities and new spaces in which to do them.

By saving the best from the past and improving the experience, we've refreshed the vitality of this historic part of the gallery. Future generations of visitors can marvel at the dioramas' artistry while learning about Canada's unique environments.

Locations Depicted

Each diorama represents a location somewhere in Canada, a place where one could go and stand and see virtually the same scene.

Grizzly	Alberta	Mountains on the left are in Waterton Lakes National Park; mountain on the right is in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
Cougar	British Columbia	Little Qualicum Falls, Vancouver Island
Richardson's ground squirrel	Manitoba	Shilo
Moose	New Brunswick	Fundy National Park, looking down Acorn Hill toward the Bay of Fundy and the Nova Scotia coastline
Bison and wolf	Northwest Territories	Lake Claire, Wood Buffalo National Park
Arctic hare	Nunavut	Kokumiak River Basin, Southampton Island
Muskox and husky	Nunavut	Above Wager Bay, on the west coast of Hudson Bay
Little brown bat, short-tailed shrew and white-footed mouse	Ontario	Doré Lake
Beaver	Quebec	Lac Fortune, Gatineau Park
Grey squirrel	Quebec	Champlain Lookout, Gatineau Park
Water shrew	Quebec	Lac Taylor
Caribou	Saskatchewan	Black Lake
Pronghorn	Saskatchewan	Near Woodpile Creek
Arctic ground squirrel	Yukon	Ogilvie Mountains northeast of Dawson
Collared pika	Yukon	Ogilvie Mountains
Dall's sheep	Yukon	Sheep Mountain, overlooking Slims River