91 Banff Avenue, Banff, Alberta, Canada
Wed-Sun: 9.30am - 5.00pm (17 May - 14 Oct)
Sat-Sun: 11.00am - 5.00pm (Other times)
Banff Park Museum was established in 1895 to house an exhibit of taxidermy-mounted specimens of animals, plants and minerals associated with Banff National Park. From vintage stuffed bears to birds of all sizes, discover more about the wildlife inside western Canada's oldest natural history museum.
The current building was constructed in 1903, which is the oldest surviving federal building in a Canadian national park.
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Flying high is the Union Jack flag that was used before the adoption of
the maple leaf-designed national flag in 1965. |
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| Hired as the museum curator in 1896, Norman Sanson rapidly expanded the collections of the museum. |
The admission fee is
C$3.90 (~S$4.05) per adult. Children below the age of 18 need not pay to enter the museum.
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| Directly in front of the admission counter is a small selection of items for sale. |
The first thing that caught my eye was the big glass display taking the centre stage of the museum.
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| A pair of horns of a bighorn sheep can weigh up to 14 kg. |
There's another glass display nearby housing a bison and his friends.
Take a look at the collection of the descendants of the avian dinosaurs.
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| Don't be so grumpy! |
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| Of all those displayed, I'm only confident in pointing out which one is the seagull. |
Do you fancy these small animals?
What about eggs and insects?
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| Who likes quail eggs? |
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| I hope this photo doesn't give chills to anyone. |
The reading room offers a selection of books and magazines for perusal, as well as other specimens.
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| You can play a simple board game there. |
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| Feel free to touch them. |
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| I like the fact that even though the admission fee is cheap, you get to see lots of things inside. |
Let's go up to the second floor.
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| Two bison heads shall greet you upstairs. |
Do you prefer black or grizzly bears?
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| Make a guess as to whether that's a black bear rug or a grizzly bear rug. |
Take a look at more animal specimens there.
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| That's a female musk ox. |
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| No, those aren't stuffed fish, of course. |
There are more things to see besides animal specimens.
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| Petrified woods and a trilobite fossil |
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| That's a bison leg trapped in a Douglas fir trunk. |
There's a section dedicated to some specimens obtained from outside of Banff National Park.
You may be able to interact with a curator at the museum. Unfortunately, he wasn't in that morning.
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| There's quite a nice sketch of bighorn sheep inside. |
There used to be a small zoo on the grounds to the rear of the museum from 1905 to 1937. At its peak in 1914, there were 50 mammals and 36 birds. After its closure, the animals, such as a lynx, wolves, as well as black and polar bears, were donated to Calgary Zoo.
From a relatively small collection of 259 birds, 8 mammals, a turtle and a variety of mineral and botanical specimens, Banff Park Museum has come a long way with a total of 5,000 specimes today.
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