Biblical Museum

Never in my lifetime could I ever have imagined what I did this day! Dr. Skinner invited friends from the Jerusalem Center to go to the Biblical Museum before he and Janice left to return home. There were 10 of us so we needed to take two cars. We were greeted by a young Jewish college student from Tel Aviv who was working in Jerusalem for the summer majoring in psychology. He was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed the next hour+ looking through the museum which consisted of preserved and live animals.

We saw a short video before we began the tour.

Photo: Puff fish

Skull of a rhino.

The jaws are huge!

A large parrot sat and watched and occasionally added to the conversation.

We saw many stuffed animals but they weren't preserved as well as those I have seen in other museums. My father dabbled in taxidermy when I was growing up so I am able to recognize good taxidermists from bad and in my opinion, these were not the best. The cost to enter the museum was about $10/person.

I thought these animals looked creepy.

Now this was one cool cat and it reminded me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

This is the shell of a giant snail.

This smaller snail shell was like a work of art and really beautiful!

There were stuffed wolves, deer, a lion, and many types of animals. The tour got much more interesting once we got to the LIVE animals.

Among the group was Brittany Lillie and her boys. Her husband, Andrew, works here and her oldest son, Critter, was the bravest of all because he didn't hesitate to touch or hold the animals.

I figured if HE could hold a tarantella then I could also. After all, it's only taken me 72 years to get up enough nerve to do something like this. I took a big breath, held out my hand and cringed! The guide said to hold still so it wouldn't bite. It had little claws on each leg that enabled it to crawl wherever it wanted and if startled, it could bite. Yikes! I made certain to not jerk my hand.

Okay, it wasn't so bad after all so I challenged Dave Heiner and Garth to do the same but it took a little coaxing. I am sure they didn't want to be shown up be a brazen old lady!

We saw stuffed birds and even an incubator with baby quail hatching. I thought of my grandchildren and wished they could have been here to see these little babies pecking their way out of their shells.

Baby quail that had just hatched. The guide said they keep them in the incubator for 2 weeks after they have hatched.

This is an ostrich. We saw ostriches when we were in Africa in 2010 and this was a smaller one.

Janet Skinner is holding a replica of a hatched ostrich egg.

We were surprised to see a bat! Everyone cringed but Garth explained a little about his research on bats and reassured them that bats help the environment.

This is a hedgehog. Apparently the claws are very sharp and they can bite so the guide wore protective gloves.

This is a white hedgehog.

When I saw this critter, I knew that our grandkids would love it. Within a few seconds, it began changing colors when taken out of its cage.

Dr. Skinner thought this reptile was cool but would not have anything to do with the tarantella.

Why is it that children aren't afraid of anything?

Okay, folks, this is proof I really held a python! It weighed about 50 lbs. As we were walking into the museum there was a caged area where they were raising lots of ducks and now I understand why. I was surely glad I wasn't a duck!

Amazingly, the skin of the python felt smooth as silk. I was okay until it coiled around my leg and started squeezing really tight but at the moment was I more worried about where the head was. It was not fun holding this creature but I wanted to say I did! However, Garth refused to. I think he was afraid he might have nightmares.

Critter (yes, that IS his name) loved everything live in the museum. I'm glad we raised girls!

Dr. Skinner also liked the snake. No thanks!

Animal horns are really loud when blown.

Carol Christensen and her husband, Reg, came two weeks ago as the newest service couple.

Garth, go blow your horn!

Every day we experience something new in Jerusalem but this one takes the cake!!