Stuffed animals draw interest

Turkey's first Zoology and Nature Museum, which opened on April 23 in the southeastern province of Gaziantep and displays stuffed wild animals, has been visited so far by more than a million people. 

Animals that have completed their life in nature and zoos have been stuffed by experts and put on display at the museum in the Gaziantep Zoo. 

The museum is like a mini replica of the zoo and is home to the skeletons of many extinct animals, such as a 4.5-meter-long mammoth and rhino, which lived in 1700 B.C. as well as the Dorudon ("Spear-toothed") who is the prehistoric ancestor of the whale, the Tyrannosaurus ("Tyrant lizard") from the dinosaur family and the Dimetrodon ("two measures of teeth"), whose appearance resembles the saber-tooth tiger. 

Wild nature exhibits are featured in the museum, which also displays 187 fowls of various species in their natural habitats as well as underwater creatures.

The museum receives many visitors, especially on weekends. 

Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Şahin said the museum has become one of the tourism spots in the city. 

She said the museum is home to 700 animals of 550 species and they are displayed as if in their own natural habitat. 

"Last year, we opened the Safari Park and it drew great interest, too. Seven hundred mammals and reptiles are presented in the museum. People are curious about the museum and we receive visitors from all over Turkey. The number of visitors who have visited the zoology section has only exceeded one million," the mayor said.