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Titolo dell'opera:
Italian Ungulates
Epoca:
XIX
Misure:
Unità di misura: UNR (; Misure mancanti: MNR
Provenienza (nazione):
Italia
Technique and Dimensions:
Mounted leather
Back to Focus:
Descrizione:
Room 7, located on the ground floor of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale “Giacomo Doria” in Genoa, houses a large panoramic display dedicated to Italian ungulates, mammals characterised by the presence of hooves. The taxidermied specimens are arranged within a naturalistic setting that recreates their habitats through an elaborate painted backdrop, designed to illustrate the diversity of Italian landscapes and wildlife.
The mountain landscape features two robust ibexes, a group of Alpine chamois and two Abruzzo chamois. At the centre of the composition, in the foreground, stands a family group of Sardinian mouflons, found in Sardinia and also distributed across other parts of the Italian peninsula through introduced populations. The clearing behind them contains a group of red deer, two fallow deer and a pair of roe deer, while a group of wild boars occupies the woodland edge. Wild boars are increasingly observed in urban environments as well. The arrangement of the specimens and the succession of reconstructed habitats provide an overview of the diversity of ungulates found in Italy, highlighting their different ecological characteristics and natural environments.
The museum's historical collections of Abruzzo chamois are of particular scientific significance. Among them is a specimen collected in 1892 at Barrea, in present-day L'Aquila province, which was subsequently used in 1899 for the description of the Abruzzo subspecies. This specimen documents the contribution of the Museo Doria's zoological collections to the systematic study of Italian fauna and underscores the scientific value of historical specimens, not only as exhibition objects but also as reference material for taxonomic research.


