The building of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. Zoological Museum of Moscow State University

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on Bolshaya Nikitskaya is the largest exhibition center in the capital.

It has the opportunity to appreciate how diverse the animal world is.

The building is located in the city center. Official information can be found on the museum's website.

In contact with

History of occurrence

It was founded in 1791. At first, there was a small office at the capital's university where natural history was studied. In fact, a small exhibition was formed here a third of a century later, and it was called the “mineralogy cabinet”.

But, when biological specimens were presented among the exhibition specimens, they created an office of natural history. The head of the department was Ivan Andreevich Sibirsky.

It is important to know: a great contribution to the formation of the exhibits was made by P.G. Demidov, who at the beginning of the 19th century donated magnificent exhibits and a library to the center.

The first inventory of the new property dates back to 1806-1807. But, a fire in 1812 caused great damage to the complex, its property was almost destroyed.

G.I. Fisher took up active restoration, he attracted a large number of collectors and naturalists, and after some time the fund consisted of six thousand exhibits. And six years later, the property of the center doubled.

By the beginning of the 30s. The 19th century collection volume consisted of 25 thousand items. The building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street was built at the beginning of the 20th century. The project for him was developed by K.M. Bykovsky. And by the 30s. of the last century, the institution was transferred to the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University.

Exposure

The exhibition in this case presents almost ten thousand copies. It is started by single-celled organisms, shown through artificial modeling, and completed by large reptiles and aurochs.

The main exhibition provides an opportunity to get acquainted with animals from all over the world and is built according to the class method (starts from the simplest, and gradually moves to the order of vertebrates).

In the lower hall, located on the 1st floor, a wide variety of the animal world is presented. Visitors can see both a single-celled organism and a large reptile here.

The number of exhibits is so huge that you can spend several days studying. The 2nd floor is occupied by the upper hall, which is completely "inhabited" by birds and mammals. There is also a Bone Hall. The exhibition in this case provides the device of animals from the inside. Visitors here can see:

• mammoth skeleton;
• fake rhino;
• model of an elephant;
• fake hippopotamus;
• stuffed crocodile and boa constrictor.

For visitors who want to learn more about animals, lectures are organized by the staff of the institution. They are carried out, taking into account children's age characteristics.

On weekends, fascinating lectures for children and parents are given by the "Biolectorium". The lobby and exhibition rooms feature paintings by famous animal painters. There are works here:

• V.A. Vatagin;
• N.N. Kondakov and others.

What interesting things you should know about the zoo museum:

• The symbol of the museum is the Russian muskrat, listed in the Red Book of Russia. She is featured on the emblem;
• The department of entomology has a collection of 4 million insect specimens;

• In addition to lectures, the staff of the institution conduct interactive classes for children of different age groups and organize children's birthday parties;
• Every Saturday and Sunday "Biolectorium" holds lectures for parents with children from five years old. Features and secrets of biology are presented here in an easy, relaxed way;
• The museum has a "Scientific Terrarium", which acquaints visitors with the peculiarities of the life of reptiles. Opening hours of the "Scientific Terrarium" - from 11.00 to 17.00 hours on weekends. You will need a separate ticket to visit it. The cost of such a ticket includes not only an exciting story, but also the opportunity to pick up rare animals;

Interesting fact: at the end of the last century, the name of the Research Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University was assigned to the institution. After numerous status changes, this name is still valid.

• Young naturalists' clubs were organized for high school students and students, he works on the author's development of a researcher E. Dunaev.

Address

The exhibition complex is located at the address: Moscow, Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, house 6. It is not difficult to find it. It is located directly in the center of the capital.

Having reached by metro to the “Library im. Lenin ”or“ Okhotny Ryad ”, you need to head to house number 6 on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street (this is the former Herzen Street). The place you are looking for is not far away, it takes less than ten minutes to get to it.

Working mode

From 10 am to 5 pm - open to visitors. Only Mondays are days off. The last Tuesday of the month is also non-working.

Ticket price

For adult visitors, the ticket price is 200 rubles. For school-age children, students and pensioners, there is a reduced price of 50 rubles.

Children under the age of seven have the opportunity to visit the exposition without tickets. This is also allowed to persons belonging to preferential categories.

If you come with the whole family or group, you can book a tour. For a group of 7 people it will cost 1500 rubles.

If you arrive without a group, but want to ask for a guide, then it is enough to purchase a ticket for 250 rubles. for an adult and 100 rubles. for a child and join any large tour group.

Zoo museum- a division of the university, and from the first days of its existence, it was to some extent a teaching aid. In addition, the Faculty of Biology (until 1955) and various laboratories and departments that preceded it were located in the same building with collections, and students really could get acquainted with animals at the same time as their studies. From here, by the way, practicums originate, and to this day they form the basis of special courses at the departments of the Faculty of Biology.

But the museum "worked" not only for students and university staff. Already from the first years of its history, albeit with interruptions, the museum has been open to the public. Without going into statistical calculations, let's just say that the number of visitors as a whole has been constantly growing, and today about 100,000 people visit each year. Pleased to note that most of them are children.

What can be seen in our museum?
Only modern animals, except for the complete skeleton of a mammoth, "meeting" visitors at the stairs to the second floor. Previously, the museum had a number of animal fossils, now they are in the Paleontological Museum.
Representatives of all groups of animals, from unicellular (mainly, of course, these are dummies) to birds and mammals.
Our exposition is systematic. The traditional arrangement of exhibits, originating from the educational collection, has been preserved. Animals are arranged in a systematic order, type by type, squad by squad, in accordance with ideas about the degree of their relationship and the course of animal evolution.

The main variety of animals, from unicellular to reptiles, is concentrated in, on the first floor of the museum. Above it is, fully occupied birds And mammals. And also on the second floor there is the so-called bone hall, the exposition of which is dedicated to showing the internal structure of vertebrates, on the example of which various aspects of the evolution of the structure in this group, so important for humans, are illustrated.

There is an exposition in the corridor of the second floor "Zoological Museum in the history of Moscow University: collections and people" dedicated to the history of the museum from its foundation in 1791 within the walls of Moscow University to the present day. Here you can look at the exhibits that appeared in the museum under its first director, Fischer von Waldheim; get acquainted with the museum during its heyday under the direction of A.P. Bogdanov in the second half of the 19th century; follow the complex history of the museum in the 20th century. It is pleasant to note that the exposition is made up of natural exhibits - witnesses of their time. The historical exposition will be of interest both to specialists - biologists and museum workers, and to everyone interested in the history of Russian science.

The zoological museum functioning at Moscow State University is considered the oldest and largest in the capital. Here you can get acquainted with the huge variety of all modern animals that live on our planet.

History of creation

Today, the existing zoological museum at Moscow State University is not only the largest in terms of its territory, but also the richest in terms of funds after a similar institution of a similar profile functioning at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Here are collected truly unique specimens and the richest scientific collections. The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street is one of the ten largest in the world.

In 1755, according to the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna, the Moscow Imperial University was founded. Today it is known as Moscow State University. The Zoological Museum was opened thirty-six years later. However, this does not prevent us from considering it one of the oldest Russian natural science centers.

Its history dates back to 1791. It was at this time that the Cabinet of Natural History was founded at Moscow State University. The Zoological Museum was opened later on its base. Initially, the collection was replenished through private donations. The most significant was the collection from the Semyatsky cabinet and the museum of P. Demidov. Very rare specimens of animals and plants, minerals, coins, etc. were collected here. Unfortunately, almost all museum exhibits of the Imperial University were destroyed during a fire in 1812.

Miraculously, only a few rare shells of mollusks and corals survived.

Branch

In the twenties, the zoological collection was separated from the partially restored office. It formed the basis of the museum of the same name. The latter was placed in the former house of Pashkov, which was reconstructed into an auditorium building of Moscow State University. The zoological museum was organized according to a systematic principle. This, according to the organizers, made it possible to illustrate the entire natural evolution of animals as much as possible.

Leaders

From 1804 to 1832, the organization was headed by G. I. Fisher. He was an outstanding zoologist, a student of K. Linnaeus himself, who wrote the very first scientific works on the Russian fauna. In 1832, the first director of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University developed a project, according to which he proposed to organize the institution entrusted to him on the model of classical French, English and German counterparts. However, his proposal was not accepted.

From 1837 to 1858 the zoological museum was headed by K. F. Rul'e. Being the founder of the Russian ecological school, he paid the main attention to the domestic fauna - its study. Roulier attached great importance not only to the collection of serial materials on modern animals, but also on fossils. Thanks to this concept, by the end of the fifties of the nineteenth century, the museum had accumulated more than sixty-five thousand exhibits.

An invaluable role in the development of this institution was played by Professor A.P. Bogdanov, who led it from 1863 to 1896. It was he who divided the available funds, separated exposition, scientific and educational ones, systematized accounting work. In 1866, the exposition of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University was opened for viewing, and by the end of the nineteenth century, according to statistics, up to eight thousand people visited it annually.

Moving to a new building

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new building was built specifically for the museum, which was headed by Professor A. Tikhomirov in those years. The project was made by Academician Bykhovsky. The new building was located at the corner of Dolgorukovsky (formerly Nikitsky) Lane and Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. It has survived to this day in its original form, without any structural changes.

In 1911, a new systematic exhibition was opened for visiting in the upper hall. In the twenties of the last century, the building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya also housed the premises for the work of employees of the Research Institute of Zoology, and since 1930 - some divisions of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. The zoological museum was also introduced into its structure.

War years

In July 1941, the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on Bolshaya Nikitskaya was closed for obvious reasons. Some of his scientific collections were evacuated to Ashgabat, while the rest were placed in the lower hall. Since March 1942, two halls on the second floor were reopened to the public, and after the end of the war, the lower level. The evacuated funds returned to their native land in 1943. The fifties of the last century were marked by the liberation of the museum building from the Faculty of Biology.

Halls of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University

Today, more than ten thousand exhibits are presented to visitors, illustrating the huge diversity of the animal world of our planet. In the spacious halls of the museum, the expositions are built systematically, according to evolutionary criteria and the international zoological classification. This allows visitors to easily navigate through the sections of the rich collection. Miniature life forms, for example, unicellular organisms, are represented in the museum by dummies.

The ground floor hall contains most of the exhibits, from insects and shells to higher beings. Presented in the form of original dioramas, the expositions enable visitors to see representatives of the animal world - reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, etc. in their natural habitat. One of the rooms showcases deep-sea life forms as well as ocean floor ecosystems.

Top floor

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov is a three-story building. Its halls are on the first two. On the second floor is the "Bone Hall". This name was given to him due to the fact that it contains the skeletons of many animals belonging to various zoological orders. The upper hall today is completely reserved for an exposition telling about the huge variety of mammals and birds. Almost all objects of this exhibition are effigies made by the best Russian taxidermists working at the end of the nineteenth and during the twentieth century. In both halls, the exhibits are mostly placed in strict accordance with their systematic positions.

The symbol of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is a small animal, the muskrat. It is he who is depicted on the emblem. There are so many interesting things in the museum that it is impossible to see everything in one day. One of the most recent exposures is the hydrothermal vent community. Against the background of other sections of the museum, it looks very unusual. The main object of this exposition is not a specific systematic group, but different animals that together make up a common ecosystem, which is “immersed” in the ocean. This is the only earth system of its kind, which directly owes its existence on a planetary scale to the processes taking place in the bowels of the earth.

Exhibits

A small number of stuffed animals are mounted along the central line of the upper hall. There are also themed showcases dedicated to birds - "Hunting with birds of prey", "Bird's Market", "Birds of the Moscow Region".

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University carries out serious work, studying and systematizing knowledge about animals. Of the ten million exhibits available, only eighty percent have been exhibited. Among them there are also unique representatives of the fauna, for example, the heaviest goliath beetle, etc.

The largest and most interesting exhibits of the museum due to their solid size are presented in the lobby. One of them is a stuffed elephant, which lived in the Moscow Zoo in the post-war years. The second exhibit is the skeleton of a rare woolly mammoth - the last species that lived on the planet. It has an interesting feature - a trace of a serious fracture of the skull bone. In addition to biological exhibits, the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University has a good collection of paintings by animal artists.

Additional Information

The institution carries out active scientific work. Many well-known scientists, including foreign ones, cooperate with the museum. He has a good library, which contains more than two hundred thousand volumes of literature and research related to biological topics. The museum organizes not only excursions for visitors of different ages, but also interactive activities for children from four to fifteen years old. Lessons are conducted according to the type of active communication. Thematic children's parties are constantly held in the museum: “Bird Day”, “Russian Desman”, etc. By the way, the last animal is, as already mentioned, the symbol of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University.

On weekends, there is a scientific terrarium. The museum contains numerous living reptiles. Visitors are allowed to feed the chameleons, hold the agama in their hands, and the terrarium staff will tell you about the habits of their wards in a fascinating way. The cost of a ticket to visit the museum for adults is two hundred, and schoolchildren, students and pensioners need to pay fifty rubles.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow University is the oldest and largest Moscow museum, where visitors can get acquainted with the diversity of modern animals of our planet, and zoologists will find the richest scientific collections. Having originated initially (1791) as a study of the natural history of the university, in which animals and plants, minerals and coins were collected, since the beginning of the 19th century the museum has become a proper zoological one. In 1902, the construction of the museum building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street was completed, which housed the collections of the museum, all its employees, and from 1911 to this day the exposition for the public has been operating.

The building of the Zoological Museum, built in 1902.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow University is one of the two largest and oldest natural history museums in Russia, and in terms of scientific collections it is among the 10 largest similar collections in the world. The history of the museum is filled with scientific discoveries, collections, activities of outstanding scientists and publications of fundamental scientific works. Gradually, three main directions of its activity were formed:
collection and storage of zoological collections - a unique scientific material that is part of the national wealth of the country;
scientific research in various areas of zoology - taxonomy and faunistics, evolution and taxonomy, morphology and nature conservation;
education, namely, the contribution to preschool, school and university education, the popularization of zoological and environmental knowledge, the publication of relevant popular scientific publications and teaching aids.

The museum's exposition includes almost 10 thousand exhibits - from unicellular animals, which, of course, have to be shown using artificial models, to crocodiles, tigers and bison. The main exposition introduces the diversity of the world fauna and is built according to the classical systematic principle - from protozoa to vertebrates, class by class, squad by squad. The exception is a small but colorful new exposition dedicated to the unique deep-sea ecosystems that exist due to chemosynthesis (the “Lower Hall” on the first floor of the museum). The theme of the exposition of the hall of comparative anatomy ("Bone Hall", the second floor of the museum) is the laws of the evolutionary transformation of morphological structures.

In the foyer and halls of the museum, works by outstanding domestic animal artists are presented, and exhibitions are held regularly.

Museum lobby

The scientific library of the Zoological Museum, formed, among other things, from the memorial libraries of many outstanding Russian zoologists, has approximately 200,000 items. These are books, periodicals and separate prints in Russian and foreign languages, necessary for professional zoologists in scientific research and available to schoolchildren, students and other readers who need scientific, popular science and illustrated zoological publications.

It is convenient for groups of schoolchildren and students to use the services of experienced guides when getting acquainted with the exposition of the museum. Every year the museum is visited by about 100 thousand people, almost 1500 excursions are held on various topics.

The museum has a biological circle for schoolchildren. Lecturers - scientists, specialists in the field of biology.

I propose to look at the museums of our capital not only as a repository of exhibits, but also as architectural objects. Let's start with one of the oldest - the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, located on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 2

Building of the Zoological Museum

The official history of the Zoological Museum is usually counted from the formation of the Cabinet of Natural History in 1791. The first collection was based on donations from representatives of the Demidov dynasty, then there were gifts from Catherine the Second, Alexander the First, and Princess Dashkova. Almost the entire priceless collection perished in the fire of 1812, only a part of the sea shells was saved. Due to numerous donations, the collection was restored anew. During the 19th century, it was located in various university buildings on Nikitskaya Street, until a separate building was built specifically for the Zoological Museum in 1898-1902.

Facade of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University overlooking Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street

The author of the project was Academician of Architecture, Chief Architect of Moscow University Konstantin Mikhailovich Bykovsky. In total, on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, he built several buildings for the university. The building style of the Zoological Museum can be described as restrained eclecticism based on classicism. The first floor of the building along the entire facade is highlighted with decorative rustication, i.e. facing with square, tightly fitting stones, in this case with pyramidal surface treatment

The building has the shape of an angle in plan and is located along Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street with one branch, and along Nikitsky Lane with the other. The architect beautifully solved the problem of balancing the facades and placed the main entrance from a cut corner. Under the roof, along the entire facade of the building, there is a stucco frieze, in which, in addition to plant garlands, you can see many animals: squirrels, bats, various reptiles, herons, owls and other birds, heads of bears, hares, wolves, mountain goats and other and equids

On each of the facades of the museum there is a semicircular niche. Based on the classicist traditions in which the building was designed, I am not sure that it was supposed to have a window, as is the case now, but with a much greater degree of certainty it can be assumed that a niche was intended for a statue, most likely an allegorical one, of one of the cohorts of patron gods of science and knowledge

The building looks very curious from the courtyard: the decor of the facade is made as carefully as from the street, only it is not plastered or painted.

Interestingly, until 1953, part of the current premises of the museum was residential, there were apartments for professors of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. Professors were visited by I. Mandelstam, M. Bulgakov, V. Kandinsky, R. Falk. It was here, within the walls of the Zoological Museum, that in 1931 Mandelstam wrote the famous: “Everything is just nonsense, sherry brandy, my angel…”. And Professor Alexei Severtsov served Bulgakov as the prototype of the famous Professor Persikov, the hero of the story "Fatal Eggs". Here, in one of the modest rooms, in the summer of 1940, Marina Tsvetaeva was sheltered with her son, who had nowhere to go after being evicted from Golitsino.

Halls of the Zoological Museum

In total, the museum has three exhibition halls on two floors. The halls are located in that part of the building that stretches along Bolshaya Nikitskaya. Along Nikitsky Lane there are offices and offices that are not accessible to visitors. In the Lower Hall, animals from unicellular to reptiles are presented; here are the most exhibits. Birds and mammals are shown in the Upper Hall. Also on the second floor there is a hall of comparative anatomy or the Bone Hall. See how spectacular the colonnade of the central aisle of the Lower Hall looks

The capitals of the columns are decorated with curls of acanthus leaves intertwined with snakes.

The old floor, lined with patterned metlakh tiles, has been preserved here. In the aisles, the tile pattern has been erased from the feet of numerous visitors, but there are well-preserved areas with a clearly readable pattern.

The upper hall immediately takes us to the era of Art Nouveau, the construction of the Eiffel Tower and the first skyscrapers, when they loved to emphasize structural elements.

Feel this rhythm of steps and railings, the laconic ornamentation of beams, the appropriateness of rivets

Staircase of the Upper Hall leading to the balconies-gallery

Along the side walls of the Upper Hall on the second floor stretch balconies-gallery, which are supported by Art Nouveau brackets.

These side balconies are not accessible to visitors, but sometimes on the Days of Museums, tourists are taken to this bridge, thrown from one wall to another

The floor in the Bone Hall is so cheerful

In the Bone Hall, one should also pay attention to the picturesque frieze on the theme of the history of the living world of the Earth. This is the work of the founder of Russian animalistics, the artist Vasily Vatagin, who worked for thirty years at the Zoological Museum and was also at the origins of the Darwin Museum

The value of V. Vatagin's work is in the exceptionally correct biological drawing, in the mastery of scientific illustration, as close as possible to the original and at the same time enriched with artistic intent. In those days, when the art and technology of photography had not yet reached its present heights, when there were no computer programs for image processing, biological drawing was practically an integral part of fundamental science. It turns out that still artistic illustrations, for example, in bird guides, are of much greater value than photographs, because very few photographs have an angle that allows you to see all the necessary identifying features.

Vatagin's works can be found in almost the entire exposition of the Zoological Museum. Huge picturesque panels depicting the life of wildlife meet visitors already in the foyer and are a real hallmark of the museum

Paintings by V. Vatagin in the lobby of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University

Funds and exposition of the Zoological Museum

It must be said right away that with the current level of transmission and preservation of the image, and with the opportunity to travel around the world, the museum exhibits do not make a stunning impression and sometimes seem primitive. But the immeasurable scientific value of the museum is determined not by its spectacle, but by the uniqueness of its funds. Only 14 thousand exhibits are presented in the halls, while the scientific funds include about 8-10 MILLION (!!!) items of storage. The collection of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is currently the second largest in Russia (after the Zoological Institute and the Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg), and in the world it occupies approximately 13th place.

Moreover, the development of science does not diminish, but only increases the value of what has been accumulated. For example, Austrian scientists recently applied to the museum for samples brought by the Przhevalsky expedition for genetic comparison with the current inhabitants of the Asian steppes.

In the Zoological Museum, almost all exhibits are natural biological material. The museum basically does not exhibit plastic models. There are only two exceptions. This is a model of unicellular animals that cannot be seen without a microscope - radiolarians, and a cast of coelacanth - the rarest, considered extinct animal, of which there are around 100 copies in all museums of the world, and in our country there is a single copy in the Institute of Oceanology. Forms of storage include both classical - dry and wet preservation, and new ones - tissue samples for DNA analysis, various transcripts of the molecular level (genotypes, karyotypes, sequences, etc.), cryocollections, audio recordings of voices, etc. racks store hundreds of thousands of jars, vials and other vessels of thick glass with ground stoppers, additionally sealed with films of bull bladders or more modern materials. Despite all the tricks, alcohol from vials and cans gradually evaporates, so it has to be topped up regularly

Among the scientific premises there is the so-called "kozheednik" or, scientifically, "dermestarium", where animal skeletons are cleaned by leather-eater insects and where entry is prohibited even for employees. The building of the Zoological Museum has extensive cellars. In that basement, under Nikitsky Lane, there was a bomb shelter with a high degree of autonomy: airtight steel doors with bolts, like in a bunker. In the other direction, the dungeon goes towards the Kremlin, but not far: the passage is blocked with brickwork. The described basements, storages and rooms for scientists are not accessible to visitors, but then I want to tell you what you should pay attention to in the halls of the museum. Here in this narrow corridor of the second floor, do not pass by one of the most unusual exhibits

This is an image of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire, which at first glance seems to be embroidered with multi-colored beads and beads, but in fact it is lined with more than 5,500 beetles and 20 species of butterflies. This appliqué painting is almost 180 years old and was donated by the original Slovenian entomologist Ferdinand Jozsef Schmidt. In Soviet times, the coat of arms was hidden in storerooms. The picture was restored three times, picking up the lost insects of the same size and color, and if initially it consisted of specimens of the Balkan ethnofauna, now it is almost entirely of Russian species.

Not only scientific, but also historical value is a stuffed rhinoceros, or rather, a rhinoceros. The animal itself was bought in 1862 in Calcutta and transported to Moscow. They called her Semiramide, and the minister who looked after her gradually renamed her Monka. The story about how Monka-Semiramide walked around Moscow from half a kilometer, when it was necessary to transfer her from a temporary place to a permanent one to the Zoo, is noteworthy. The gendarmes blocked the traffic, about 20 workers gathered to keep the rhinoceros on a chain, a heavy log was also tied to the chain. But Monka ran, broke the chain and was stopped only by a piece of bread. So, having fed her about 11 kg of bread, they brought her to the Zoo. She lived there for 24 years, and after her death she presented the Zoological Museum with two exhibits: a stuffed animal in the Upper Hall and a skeleton in Kostnoy. Previously, a scarecrow stood in the aisle and there are still legends that people jumped over it - and not across, but along (!) - not only students, but also the luminaries of domestic science

In general, many inhabitants of the Moscow Zoo ended up on the museum’s exposition after death: these are giant pandas, and the Indian elephant, and the lion (a gift to I. Stalin from D. Nehru), several species of monkeys and birds

And the stuffed hippo, most likely, was made right in the exhibition hall, because due to its size it does not fit through the door leading to the hall. This exhibit was used in the film by Eldar Ryazanov "Garage" - it was on it that the "luckiest" member of the cooperative, performed by the director, slept

On my own behalf, I would advise you to pay attention to the showcase with the birds of central Russia. You will be surprised to see the species diversity of the most familiar birds to us: sparrows, tits, buntings. And here you can also find out the names of the birds that live next to us, in city squares and alleys

Everyone, of course, has their own sympathies in the animal world, but as an insect fan, I cannot help but draw your attention to butterfly stands.

In fact, out of the one and a half million species of animals on Earth known to us, up to a million are insects - so this is their planet)). Look at these handsome beetles - you just want to take them in your hands to feel their heaviness, solid cast bodies and admire the impeccable perfection of nature's creations

How to get to the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University

The official address of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, building 2 (former building 6). This is in the very center of Moscow, on the corner of Bolshaya Nikitskaya and Nikitsky lane, 6-7 minutes walk from the Okhotny Ryad metro station (exit to Tverskaya street, to the Yermolova theater):

Walk a minute longer from the stations of the Lenin Library, Aleksandrovsky Sad and Arbatskaya Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line:

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Thursday until 9 p.m., but visitors are not allowed in one hour before closing. Monday is a day off. The last Tuesday of the month is a sanitary day. Ticket price: full - 300 rubles, for schoolchildren, students, pensioners - 100 rubles.

The museum offers dozens of excursions for different ages. Their subject matter and design procedure can be found on the official website of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. The museum has a bio-lecture room and a circle of young naturalists.