Page 3 - Expotime10_11_2017

The director's intro

What do we really know about our "four-legged friends"?

Just in Austria there are at least 600,000 dogs and 1.5

million cats ‒ breed dogs and mixed breeds, breed cats
and street cats, guide dogs, and rescue dogs. They are
an integral part of our houses and streets, and even of
our world of ideas. For thousands of years they were
Minimalistic design. esteemed or feared by the humans.

Maximum control. But what do we really know about them?

How have they become so different from their wild an-
cestors? How do they perceive their surroundings? What
do they feel? How do they communicate? Can they un-
derstand us? How do we live together? How many de-
scendants can a cat have? How long does it take to train
a therapy dog? What is the optimal diet and daily sched-
ule for the pet? These are just some of the basic ques-
tions that are answered in the exhibition in a variety of
ways, including reference to widespread prejudice and
false ideas.

"Cats and Dogs” is a dynamic, interactive exhibition at
the Museum of Natural History, Vienna, about our most
popular pets, which shows the animals from a less-
er-known side. The exhibition features entertaining in-
formation about abilities, peculiarities, and intelligence
of our four-legged companions, which results from 30
years of scientific observation of the behavior of dogs An exciting addition to the exhibit are four frozen baby
and cats; it also encourages the visitors to observe and animals from the last Ice age, which are on display - for
interpret typical reactions of the animals. the very first time ‒ at the Natural History Museum Vi-
enna, in cooperation with the Zoological Institute of the
The exhibition has three main topics: The "in our socie- Russian Academy of Sciences.
ty"-section shows the cultural aspects of the long-lasting
coexistence; "in their heads" offers in the form of unusu- Two cave lion babies, 12 000 years old, were found as
al experiments the possibility to see, hear, and feel like frozen carcasses in the permafrost of Yakutia in eastern
our four-legged friends; and "in their skin" is designed Siberia. The cave lion is a subspecies of the modern lion
With the WiFi data logger system testo 160 you have ambient conditions under as an activity area where the audience is animated to „Panthera leo“. In addition, two Alsatian whelps were
control – inconspicuously, comprehensively, anywhere. compare their own physical abilities with those of dogs found there as well. They died 12 460 years ago at the
and cats. age of 3 months. Skin, fur, and inner organs of the ani-
• Sensors for temperature, humidity, Lux, UV, CO2 concentration and air pressure Games and computer animations encourage visitors mals were well preserved in the permafrost. DNA-tests
• Small dimensions, individually designable housing cover to see the world through the eyes of their four-legged showed that those animals are early, primitive dogs.
• Individual alarm functions (e-mail, SMS)
friends to understand their behavior. Senses, abilities, Univ. Prof. Dr. Christian Koeberl
feelings, intelligence, and body language are discussed. General Director of the Museum of Natural History
There is an opportunity to interpret the wide range of (NHM), Vienna
utterances and the message they convey: aggravation,
Would you like to get some more information? Then take a look at our websites: irritation, hunger, anxiety, pain, well-being, search for
closeness, and need for attention. In return, visitors will The exhibition "Cats and Dogs" runs to April 2, 2018.
learn how their own body language is interpreted by cats
and dogs.

In addition, the exhibition provides information about
the wild master forms, about breed dogs and breed cats,
their targeted breeding, and domestication phenomena,
but also about challenges, such as keeping pets in large
cities.

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EXPOTIME!, issue October / November 2017