Secret life of the beetles, featuring a macaw, owl and pheasant

Watch a time-lapse video showing the Museum’s smallest workers, flesh-eating beetles, preparing the skeletons of a great green macaw, tawny owl and mountain peacock-pheasant for our collections. Chemical preparation of skeletons can cause damage to the bones so a special beetle species, Dermestes haemarrhoidalis, is used to strip off the flesh while leaving the bones and collagen untouched. To see another specimen being prepared for our collections and to find out more about the process visit: Watch the flesh-eating beetles live on our webcam: