2014-01-02

【Aiden in English】

        When I was little, I used to love natural history museums. But never in my life had I seen something like this. The Natural History Museum in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique was like none other. 

        The whole first floor was collected by literally a manmade 4-D of a typical African ecosystem. It had the African big five- the lion, leopard, cape buffalo, elephant, and rhino. The 4-D picture had them set around a small pool of water with desert and some little patches of grass. The scene also had giraffes munching on a tree with lush green and plentiful leaves. Warthogs scurried under the legs of the bigger animals as they searched for the shade. A few of leopards chased the warthogs while the rhinos were trying to escape a pride of lions. It fascinated me to see how the artists could capture it all and combined it into a 4-D picture. The detail about how the wild worked was all explained in one exhibition hall. I guess what people say is true. A picture is really worth a thousand, no, even a million words.

        Next, we proceeded to the back, where we saw what this museum was famous for. It had a time line of fetus or an immature elephant that was still in the mother's belly. The process of giving birth to a quarter ton baby began with a tiny ball. Then it got bigger and bigger, and started taking shape! At a month, the fetus, or baby elephant already had the looks of his or her mother. It was white. By the time it reached 11 months, the skin had turned black. Finally, it took another 11 months for birth.

        In America, all of this illustration needed to exhibit real dead animals or specimens to actually be a museum. But in Maputo, everything presented man-made models except the foetal development. However, they both demonstrated the same things. Really, there wasn't a significant difference. As long as I got the message, it would be fine to me.

        小的时候，我喜爱自然历史博物馆，但从未想到会参观象莫桑比克首都马普托这样别具风格的自然历史博物馆。

        整个一楼展出的非洲动物生态系统全部都是四维人工模型，包括非洲五霸﹕狮子、豹子、水牛、大象、黑犀牛，以莫桑比克草原特有的沙漠绿洲湖泊为背景来表现野生动物的自然环境。长颈鹿置身茂密的绿叶丛中享尽美味佳肴，疣猪为摆脱庞然大物的威胁而四处躲藏。几只豹子竭力追逐疣猪，犀牛面对一群狮子大举进攻只好疲于奔命。艺术家们将野外捕捉的生动形象浓缩到室内精湛的四维作品之中，令我赞叹不已。人们常说，一幅图画胜过千言万语，对此我深有同感。

        随后我们来到展厅背面参观该博物馆最著名的展品，那就是大象胚胎发育标本，涵括从胚囊到出生时250公斤个体的成长过程。头一个月，胚胎初显“象”态，周身呈白色﹔直到十一个月时，肤色才逐渐变黑﹔再有十一个月，小象行将诞生于世。

        在美国，只有动物尸体做成的标本才能资格拿到博物馆展出。但在马普托，除胎儿发育为实体标本外，其它一切均为人造模型。当然，无论动物标本还是人造模型都起到普教意义。说真格的，两者确实没有显著差异，只要物尽其用，什么材料的东西对我无大所谓。