Hi everyone. We're going to have a really interesting webinar today on taxidermy. So I'll just give my usual introductions and then we'll start. If you have any questions during the webinar please put them in the chat box and I'll make sure they get answered. These are our next two webinars that are coming up in October. We're having one on insurance and one on marking and labeling collections. So you can sign up for those. Just go to the website. If you don't see them in the slide or on the website they're in the calendar and they're all free. And we're also doing a survey. So if you haven't gotten an email to request you to participate in the survey you can go to the website and go to this tab in the slider and it'll take you to the survey. The survey is really important because we're trying to figure out what you want and also how to keep this program going. And we also have the discussion group. So if you're a registered member of the Connecting to Collections Care which is really easy. It doesn't cost anything. You can ask questions. If you're not registered you can read everything in the questions. But if you need a question answered please we're available. They're conservators and historic preservation professionals that are looking over making sure the questions get answered. So there's that. If you can go to the community website. You can like us on Facebook. You can follow us on Twitter. And if you need to contact me this is my email address. And so I guess without further ado we'll get started. Our speakers today are Eugene Miller and George Dante and I'll let them introduce themselves. Okay. Okay. Hello. Good afternoon or morning depending where you are.  I'm just going to get started. You can check my bio out in the description so because we have a lot to cover. So can I, I'm sorry I'm not able to proceed Susan. You're fine. Go ahead. Got it. Okay. So who has taxidermy? Well, all sorts of collecting institutions have taxidermy. Your specimens may be. Numerous and directly tied to your educational mission such as in a science or nature museum or a zoological collection or even a children's museum or it may be. It may be that your specimens tell only part of a larger story such as in a historic home. In the image at left we see two taxidermy head mounts flanking the fireplace in the front hall of Westbury House in Long Island, New York. Pretty typical of a historic home or perhaps you just have a one-off piece such as at right you see that little guy up there who's actually not little. He's very large. It's a taxidermy monitor lizard who's hung vertically as if he's scaling the wall and that forms part of a contemporary piece by Mario Mertz which was on display at the Des Moines Art Center.  So Susan, if you could pull up question one, you've pulled that up and then followed by two and three. So question one is about what type of institution you're affiliated with. And then we want to know what your role is in question number two and how large your taxidermy collection is. So that's great. Thank you for answering. So I seem to have a lot of natural history people and some local history I see coming up and historic homes as well. And mostly collections. Karen, we have a few conservators on here too. So glad you're joining us. And great. Thank you. Okay. So regardless of the type of institution you're coming from, you really want to know the basics of how taxidermy is prepared and how it deteriorates in order to be able to take care of it. So I'm going to continue with my next slide here. So what is taxidermy? I mean really basically what we're talking about here is taxidermy specimens, mounted stuffed animals. They may be full body mounts, head and shoulder mounts, small mammals, birds, reptiles you name it. And then there's also study skins to consider, which are skins of animals that are not mounted. Hunters sometimes use the term trophy mounts when referring to the full shoulder or head and nail mounts, but today we're really going to focus on the individual specimens. But much of what we say will hold true for study skins and mounted material found within dioramas. So in the study skins at the lower right you see some birds in storage in a drawer. So as we said, you know, we're talking a little bit about dioramas, but one or more of these types of specimen is used to create what we call a habitat diorama. The example left is quite large, room sized, but smaller groupings in vitrines as seen on the right are also common. This is a grouping from a commercial proprietor of historic taxidermy. Depending on the date and origin dioramas may contain preserved dried plant materials or replicas created by artists or a combination of the two. So what left is the African buffalo diorama at the American Museum of History in New York. These dioramas, which were created by a team of scientists, naturalists and extremely skilled artisans, really represent the apex of this genre. They very sensitively recreate a particular moment in time and location. However, from the earliest attempts at taxidermy style preservation, which date to 16th century Europe to its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th century, taxidermy was practiced far and wide across the land in Europe and the US. So you really had taxidermists of varying skill and ability practicing their craft, and it was really a thriving cottage industry much beyond the institutional halls. And I'm sure you all see this reflected in your specimens, and George will talk more about this later. But once again, inquiring minds want to know, and I'm going to ask Susan to just highlight poll questions four and five. We're curious what type of specimens you have in your collection and whether or not they're part of a diorama. So for the most part, it seems like you have so far we're seeing people with specimens that are not part of a diorama. And a mixture of animals, birds, mammals, and a mix. Okay. Thank you. So taxidermy mounts are what we call, as conservatives, composite objects. They're really composed primarily of organic materials or materials that were once living and have been treated chemically to preserve them in varying ways. So treated more or less. We'll hear more about that too. The mounts also include numerous adhesives, coatings, paint, inorganic additions such as plaster, glass, fasteners, and eyes. When thinking about handling, storage, and display of these items, because they are composite, you really have to consider the most sensitive of the components. And like the organic materials would include collagen and keratin in the skin and leather, keratin in the feather, hair, horn, and nail, claws, and hooves, bone, which is when the skulls are included and that will have inorganic and organic components, chitin, which would be for insect and crustacean exoskeletons. And you also might find wood present within the inner armatures and forms. Inorganic materials that are often present, as I said, are glass, iron in terms of the fasteners, other metals, lead armatures are very common. So just as an overview of what we're going to be covering today, I first want to say this is a very huge topic and a relatively short amount of time to do it. We hope to provide some useful information, but it certainly won't be exhaustive, but we really do want your feedback. So we are going to keep barraging you with these poll questions about the topics, but thank you for so far you've been great answering them. And I'm going to turn over to George in a minute, our master taxidermist, and he's going to begin by talking a little bit about the technology of taxidermy and some changes and variations in the practice that occurred throughout history, preserving these animals. Also, some things that are really kind of cool that you might learn from looking really closely at your specimen. And after that, we'll address the common types of damage and deterioration we see in these mounts and their causes and some suggestions to reduce them. And then finally, George and I will discuss treatment options and discuss some of the differences between a conservation approach and what you might get by a taxidermist who would be doing restoration of your taxidermy. So, George. Hi everyone. Thanks for having me today. So, first we're going to talk about the difference in materials and the methods of taxidermy. Throughout history, basically, we saw that taxidermy from birds to mammals to fish were sometimes done with very similar materials based on the popular materials that were available at that time period. So, I'm going to introduce you to a few different types of terminology that we as taxidermists would use that may not be used by conservators or museum professionals. So, I hope to kind of illustrate that for you. First we're going to talk about conventional taxidermy. When we say conventional taxidermy, we're basically discussing preserved skin fit over an armature. And this is the most common taxidermy that you're going to see in your pieces in your collection. How can we tell the difference? That is a great question everyone always asks. It's usually a generally good solid body shape to the piece. It usually has decent anatomy. It's a very solid structure. And we do what we call a tap test. We can actually just slightly tap the side of the animal and kind of listen to it. And with experience, you can tell by that sound what kind of body is inside, if it's solid, if it's maché, if it's paper. And we also have what we call a pin test. We will take a very sharp pin and basically insert it into the animal at a location. And we can tell by the resistance of that pin what type of mannequin is on the inside. The other method we're going to look at is loose fill taxidermy. Loose fill is a very old method of taxidermy and it is actually still carried out and done today. What it talks about is basically a preserved skin that's filled with a loose material. It may have a very crude armature on the inside of wire. It may have some natural skeletal elements, but it's basically filled with rags, sawdust, chop, sisal. It's usually pretty easy to tell these pieces because they always seem to have a very stuffed, overfilled appearance. The anatomy is usually very poor. They are very susceptible to severe cracking because there's really nothing that that skin is glued to. Nothing holding it in place, so you'll have a severe crack and you'll start to see loose material coming out of the piece. That's usually the greatest sign right there.  This was primarily done with snakes. A lot of lizards were done this way because at that time period it was the best way to do them. The next procedure we'll look at is models. We're not going to get too far into models today because it really isn't traditional taxidermy. But reptiles and fish were notorious for being done as models because it was a more accurate way of doing them. Molds were made of the specimens. Positives were cast then in plaster, wax, fiberglass, and certain plastics. You can usually tell these because they're better than any of your taxidermy. The models on these smaller amphibians were usually very, very well done. You'll see very little appearance or no appearance of seams where the animal has been stitched up. You'll see no shrinkage, very little damage from age because these usually held up very well.  If it's a wax piece, it'll be very hard if it was a newer resin piece. The celluloid method is another method we're not going to get into too much today because it's just a huge offshoot of taxidermy. And it's where the specimen was molded and cast and then integral colored. It is a branch of mold making, but it's also a branch of taxidermy because it was used in later times as trying to find a better way to preserve primates. Animals with facial features and it would actually make a mold, allow the specimen to macerate inside the mold and then fill it with celluloid. So we're not going to get into that and I'm sure most people are not going to encounter them very often. The last method we're going to talk about is freeze dry. Freeze dry was a very popular process and became very popular at a time period. And it's sometimes very difficult to tell the difference in ease. Freeze drying usually has a specimen that looks very good. The anatomy is very decent on the piece because there's no mannequin on the inside. Everything of the animal is usually intact aside from the internal organs. You can give them a pin test, you can insert a pin. You'll see a good amount of resistance, but the flesh inside does turn to a foamy texture. So you will be able to insert a pin to it. They, especially if you have a piece that has an open mouth or nose that look incredibly realistic, these are usually freeze dried pieces. It's a very hard body, very solid body. So if we go to the next slide, we're going to start with preparation techniques. So in the beginnings, we must start with preparing the skin. Preparing the skin involved a preservative. There are several different preservatives that were used over time and that are still used today. First we'll start out with a pickle. Now a pickle basically describes a method of soaking the skin in an acid, an alcohol, or an alum solution. And it was a very quick method. It was done a lot on smaller specimens and still used through time today. The second would be a dry preservative. This is a method where the skin would be removed from the animal and a dry powder would be rubbed on the skin to preserve it. And that's all that was used. We saw things in birds where arsenic powder would be rubbed on the skin, dusted in through the feathers. One smaller mammal later in history, borax, was a huge dry preservative. The other thing about dry preservatives is they became proprietary mixes. Each studio started to develop their own formulas of dry preservatives. So that's where we run into issues where we may not really know what is in there. The tanning is the most tried and true process. This is the best way to preserve a skin and it involved the acid pickle, oiling of the skin, shaving, etc. A true tanned hide was going to be your most stable skin. We have the freeze dry after that. In the freeze dry piece there is no preservation of the skin. So again the animal was just eviscerated and pumped up a little bit and put into a freeze dry machine. So we don't see very many chemicals used at all through history in freeze dry pieces for preserving the skin itself. Taxidermists traditionally used bug-proofing agents. From the beginning infestations were always a problem. So in addition to the preserving of the skin, taxidermists would usually add something else to the skin to help bug-proof it. We see arsenic soap being applied to the inside of a tanned skin, borax being dusted on a skin. Solutions were made of borax and that were painted on the inside of the skin. Arsenic powder was dusted over skins, especially birds. Individual formulas were also created for this. Again we see people in their own studios trying to improve upon these methods and coming up with their own formulas. The pros and cons, there were many. They all have their own different pros and cons. Out of all of these the most stable is a tanned skin. If you have a piece that's in great condition and it's lasting it's probably a tanned skin. So now we'll move into the mounting of the specimen. If we go to the next slide we'll start with our quote-unquote mannequins. First we'll start out with the stuffing or loose fill method. So the stuffing and loose fill started very, very early and I see one of our questions here by Matt is asking about that. Loose fill started in the very beginning. As a matter of fact one of the first pieces of taxidermy was a mounted rhinoceros that was literally the skin was filled with gravel. So loose fill started very, very early and it was very crude. Basically a simple wire armature was made on the inside. Again parts of the skeleton, the skull were used and the skin was sewn back. The incisions were sewn as the taxidermis filled the specimen cavity. So if you can imagine taking a leg of an animal you would make several stitches, fill the leg. Make several more stitches, fill the leg. So you're essentially back filling this animal until you've sewed every incision up and have this stuffed piece. The taxidermis would then bend it, shape it into position and crudely shape the anatomy into it. Most of these pieces looked very overfilled and very unnatural. Some of them were well done but most of them were very unnatural pieces and caused a lot of problems. The second technique we'll look at would be wrapped forms and that's what our slides are illustrating here today. If we look we have some great images of Comanche here. A wrapped form typically started out on a large mammal with a center board or a crude wood armature that would take up the body mass of the animal. We see the skeletal elements that are cleaned and not cleaned very well. They were basically just roughly flushed out. They would drive them, set into place for the legs. You see the skull attached to the armature wire and then wood was used to further fill out the animal, bulk it out basically and then the material was wrapped over that armature. Now the material was sysil or wood wool and it's a very loose material that kind of has the consistency of steel wool but usually a plant product. This was done very well by some taxidermists. Through history it was perfected and in the upper right hand corner there we see William T. Hornaday actually wrapping a tiger mannequin there and Hornaday really perfected this technique. They would actually sew with a twine the musculature into these pieces. So they would create these elaborate muscle groups by actually sewing this excelsior together. The head of the animal was either the skull that was flushed out with excelsior over the top of it. It might have been carved out of balsa wood or it could have been cast off of the animal as form of a death mask out of plaster of Paris. There were many variations of it. Later in time taxidermists started covering these wrapped excelsior bodies with clay and then mache to further stabilize them and make them a little stronger. Next we have carved wood bodies. This was a small offshoot. We saw this mainly for small animals that were very, very tiny. We look at chipmunks, mice where taxidermists would actually take a small piece of balsa wood and completely carve the animal out of this material and then wrap the legs. So you'd have a balsa wood core that would basically encompass the head, encompass the body, and then the legs were wrapped just like we see here. Even in birds, birds were notorious for being wrapped bodies as you'll see down at the bottom. The bottom slide is a small bird mannequin and where for bird anatomy it was very easy just to take a small water. This excelsior wrap it up and the same for the neck. As you can see, there were several different grades of excelsior. Much more coarse material was used for the body and the neck was a finer material so they can get a little bit more delicate with it. And finally after this we come to Carl Eakley's method and the next slide will illustrate Eakley's method of doing a mannequin. Now Carl Eakley felt that everything we've seen done to this point was not good enough. We needed a more accurate way of mounting animals and Carl developed this process of either using the center board like we see here in this gazelle or rearticulating the entire skeleton of the animal. Over that skeleton or this armature he would start to put oil-based clay and basically start this wonderful sculpture of the animal's anatomy and these were really beautiful pieces. Once the anatomy was as close to the animal as he could get, he would test fit the skin several times and then finally make a mold of that piece. So in the last slide you'll see there in the lower right-hand corner, that is a plaster mold made over the top of that clay sculpture. The mold was separated and the mold was archived. You had this mold that they would use. The clay sculpture was then discarded. The clay was used again and the mold was kept. Inside that mold we see several different products being used over time. The molds were first started out of being used. They were doing a mache material to make their mannequin. So mache was used. Different materials were used to reinforce the mache and then we moved quickly to plaster and burlap. Plaster is made in a slurry burlap. It is put into this almost like a paper mache process. So the plaster and burlap is laminated inside these molds to create this very hard mannequin. After plaster and burlap, taxidermis started to move over to paper. Paper was lighter. It was a little bit more durable as far as staining falls. It was more cost effective. Laminated paper was laid into these molds and used to create the mannequins. After paper we see different materials being used and we will illustrate some of these in a bit. If we go to our next slide you will see some different materials here. In the upper left hand corner those two mannequins there are actually plaster and burlap. Those are James L. Clark mannequins. You can usually tell a plaster and burlap mannequin by the weight of it. If you are lifting or moving your taxidermy around at all you can usually tell right away because they are very very heavy. They are still hollow inside but they are quite heavy because of the material. If you have any cracks or separations in your skin you can usually look inside with a small light and you will usually see that burlap exposed and that is a great indication. Below that photo you will see the paper. Paper mannequins were laminated rosin paper using different glues. Common practice was to seal the paper mannequin with an orange shellac to basically waterproof it and give the hide glue a good surface to bond to. In the upper right hand corner I have a couple wood mannequins here. Through history taxidermists would basically make a mannequin out of anything they possibly could. Although we can guess on what is inside of these pieces sometimes you never know. There was a company in New England through several years were doing nothing but mounting every one of their heads on hand carved wood mannequins. If you look at these you will see how elaborate they are put together. They are using skeletal elements in there. They are using some excelsior to fill out flesh out them. So sometimes we really don't know what is inside until we poke around a little deeper. In the bottom you will see that bare rug shell there is fiberglass. There was a period in time where some taxidermists were making their molds and playing around with fiberglass. When fiberglass first came on the scene after World War II taxidermists said we need to find something that is more durable especially for items like bare rugs. Where these rugs would be abused on the floor and moved around and stepped on. So a lot of taxidermists started to make their own out of fiberglass in efforts to create a stronger more durable piece. The next slide. So we are going to move into the eyes. Some portions of the animal are not preserved. Some pieces are recreated in other materials and no better elements to talk about than the eyes. So the eyes of the piece are very very interesting. Sometimes they can tell us how old the piece is. They can tell us the quality of the piece of the efforts that went into it. The earliest forms of eyes were hand blown eyes or hand shaped eyes out of glass. And you can see in the lower left hand corner there is a great example of some older eyes. They were painted several different ways, several different styles. Some taxidermy studios painted their own eyes. They had their own methods of painting them, their own paint schedules. So they vary quite a bit. They are usually a very shallow dome. If you look at them from the side, their profile is very very shallow, almost button like. Later after these older eyes we see a more higher profile eye. It's almost a higher dome. They were starting to make these out of molds. So it would actually pour the molten glass inside of a mold. Press it together where you'll see, as I'm holding it there, you'll see the hollow back of these eyes. And again, they started updating their painting processes, but you'll see several different types of paints. They started to offer eyes in different price qualities. So you'll see that one label cheap there is basically very impressionistic as far as the veining inside the eyes. The mid-range had a little softer veining when they started using airbrushes. They really toyed around with getting these as accurate as they can. And then the last one, the higher end eyes, they started offering these eyes with blue glints in them. At some point in history they started to feel that most of these luminates had a blue glint to their pupil, and they actually started creating that in these eyes. So we could actually kind of date these pieces if we see these eyes in there. All the way over on the right we see whites in the eyes. And this is interesting because a lot of people ask us, if your piece has whites in the eyes, does that mean it's a more contemporary piece? Is it more modern? And the answer is no. There was a time in history, and these are very old eyes, where taxidermists wanted to create that white in the eye or the slara.  Very beautiful eye, and it was way ahead of its time. So we'll then talk about some of the more modern eyes today. So if you have any taxidermy today that you're looking at, you can usually tell the day to the piece right away by the style of the eyes if you look at these. Modern eyes today have come so far, whereas the eyes are actually created for individual species, and multiple styles are created for each species. The good quality eyes have the whites in the slara around them. The modern eye, as you can see, the corneal bulge will be corrected and the slara will be corrected in the vascular detail. But what's interesting about this is there were certain studios that created wonderful eyes. If you look at this example here, this is an eye of an African elephant that was mounted by Roland Ward in 1907. And if you look at this eye, it is actually better than some of the elephant eyes sold today. So at that time period, they made a very beautiful piece of glass, a good crystal, and painted it wonderfully where it even has the slara, all the vascular detail, really beautiful eyes. So sometimes it could be very confusing. So aside from the eyes, we'll quickly move over to the ears of the piece. So in the next slide, you'll see here the ears were done several different ways. We first see ears being done with no liner inside them at all. And when I talk about an ear liner here today, we're talking about a material inside the animal's ear. That is between the back ear skin and the front ear skin. That's sandwiched between these two pieces of skin that allows the ear to hold its shape in a natural form. Very early on, no ear liners were used at all. The ears were left to kind of dry, shrivel up on their own. Then they started using sheet lead. Sheet lead kind of revolutionized the way taxidermis preserved the ears. It was a great material for creating these elaborate shapes. And as you can see here, these are two separate ear liners. The one on the right, a very crude lead ear. The one on the left, a very, very nicely done lead ear. So it varied depending on the skill of the taxidermist. So the lead ears were wonderful. If you see, there's actually score marks on that ear. The better one has the score marks where the taxidermist knew he wanted to rough up that surface. So whatever glues he used had something to bite to. There's also an ear butt or the muscle of the butt actually sculpted on there in paper mache. Wonderful advancements. And these are not far from time periods. These are actually very close. What we're looking at is literally just a difference between a skilled taxidermist and an unskilled taxidermist. After lead ear liners kind of went out of fashion, taxidermists were looking for a cheaper, quicker material to use, and many of them went over to paper. Just like the paper mannequins were used, they would make a mold of an ear and actually laminate paper over that mold. And again it was usually a rosin paper that was laminated with some sort of glue. It might have been a dextrin paste and these paper ear liners were inserted into the years of the specimens. After paper, taxidermists started using salastic material. Salastic was a plastic material that was submerged in acetone and then the taxidermist could shape it with his hands, lay it over one of these molds and create the ear shape with this that was inserted and glued into the ear. After salastics, we see taxidermists now start to get into molding and casting ears, heat form plastics, and then later machets, epoxies, and polyester resins. So as we get later in time, it's actually harder to figure out what's inside the ears because oddly enough contemporary times taxidermists are using more materials inside their ears than ever before. Next. Okay. All right. Well, I'm just going to jump in here for a bit and talk about how some of these techniques and materials affect what we're seeing now. This is sort of an introduction to our deterioration section, but I have inherent advice up here and some of you may be familiar with this term, but conservators use it to describe problems arising from qualities of a material that are part of the object or inherent to it, which will inevitably lead to its deterioration. So this can be due to problematic combinations or materials that behave differently under the same conditions or to poor quality materials to begin with. And it should be noted that we've been talking about the materials and methods used in the taxidermy, but that those materials used in the preparation really will have an effect on the specimen and its current condition you're seeing now. So a poorly mounted specimen from any period is going to have more problems than one that was made by a skilled craftsperson, but some of these materials have common problems such as curled split ears. These are pretty ubiquitous, right, George, among the historic mounts? They are. They are. If you look at the eye there, most of the eyes in these specimens were set in a plaster or a mache material, very hard material, and then later in water-based clay. And what would happen is we see that the mannequins were very smooth in their section of the eye socket. This material would be set in place. The eye, the glass eye would be set into that. And if the skin would start to delaminate and pull away from the form, you'd have this whole section actually break free and start to rattle around inside there. So this was a common problem, and this is why, because of the way this was created. Same thing with the ears. The ears are always an area where the damage is easily occurred by moving these pieces around. And the lead ear is soft, so if you bang it, the ear skin is delicate. You're going to crack the ear and the lead skin to bend. The nice thing about these is that the lead ears can be repositioned. I don't think there's any material today that is used that you can do this with. The beauty of it is you can actually reposition that ear back into a correct position. Unfortunately, you're not going to have to deal with the skin that's cracked all around it, but the ear can be salvaged. We also see many, many problems when dealing with inherent vice. If we look at this piece, it's a great example for many situations. So we look at this caribou head. We first look at the animal overall and wonder about the tan. Was it a poorly tanned hide? Might it be a pickle where the hide got wet? Did it get insect damage? What is actually happening here? We look at it and you could see large amounts of area where the hair is missing. And we'd have to kind of go back and kind of figure out what exactly is going on here. Right away we can see it's a plaster and burlap form. You could see the pieces of burlap there. You could see the plaster. These animals, when they would fall, when they would get damaged and bumped, that plaster would crack and it could be disastrous. They were extremely heavy and difficult to move around. The ear, if you look at it closely, appears to be curled again without physically inspecting this. It's difficult to tell, but when an ear curls up that bad and is really shriveled, we assume that there's no liner inside that. Because if it's a lead liner, it'll bend a little bit, but it'll have a solid base behind it. If you see ears that are really curled out of position without being broken or terribly shredded, then there's usually no liner inside that ear. Okay. So now we're really going to move on to some specific threats to your taxidermy. But Susan, could you pull up question number six, please? We're going to talk about damage that we've seen and we want to hear what kinds of damage you've seen. So that's what question six is about. Yeah. Splits and cracks, loss of hair, for sure. Oh, yeah. George, did you want to talk about the loss of hair on that caribou? Did I rush you? Or you could talk about that. No. We can talk about that later. That's fine. Okay. Yeah, we have other opportunities. Okay. So everybody's seeing it all. Yeah. Pest damage, splits and cracks. Yeah. Well, the slide up here is showing you from the CCI, the Canadian Conservation Institute has long promoted a holistic approach to preventive conservation, and they have outlined these 10 agents of deterioration that affect museum and archives. So we find it helpful to go through these and sort of show how they will affect your taxidermy. A particular concern are incorrect light levels infestation by museum pests, physical damage from improper handling, and disaster, fire, blood, and all of these will affect your specimens, and you've seen the problems there. And we're going to talk about common problems from each agent. So the first agent we have up here is custodial neglect or disassociation, and this occurs when information becomes separated from the specimen. If you have unidentified items of unknown origin, unknown species, without accession or catalog information, they would fall under this category. Some of this can be remedied. Animals can be identified and roughly dated, possibly based on some of these techniques we've learned about. Items in a questionable storage situation, such as this head mount, which is stored in a cellar among garden furniture, doors, cast off items, and only identified by this plaque could be moved and rehoused, and should be. Sometimes though we have a good success story. In a historic home you might be able to find receipts or other archival information about the acquisition, such as with the case with this tiger mount, which turned out to be, you know, had actually been suggested that it was probably a Roland Ward piece from its look. And then they actually found the documentation when they looked further and were able to connect that with the specimen. So this is from the Westbury House in Long Island. And we're going to ask you another question. Susan, if you could pull up poll question number seven. Do you all know the history and origin of your mounts, or might you have situations where you have questions about them? So it seems like it's coming out maybe for the most part to know the majority. There are some questions about the history and origin. So hopefully you'll be able to investigate that further with a little bit of information we're sharing today. So I'm going to move on to physical forces, which are certainly another threat to taxidermy as George has mentioned. The blows and strikes that can damage the fragile parts, the ears, the different appendages. But we also have to remember the force that's working on us all as the years go by, which is gravity. This was the specimen that we saw climbing up the wall in one of those opening slides I had. Harold, as he's affectionately known, was hung vertically from the wall and he was hung from the metal rings on his feet, which you see one at the upper right. As his comment for the reptile mounts, he was filled with a kind of, you know, red, just loose film material, which if you see in the lower left, he was shipped in a crate and when it arrived that material was just all over. It had fallen from the crack that you see on the lower right side in his tail, which went like pretty much three-quarters of the circumference of the tail. The original stitching had become somewhat deteriorated, but the new crack had formed because really the method that he was hanging from and didn't adequately support the lower body or the tail with all of that film material had begun to crack and sag under its own weight. So the most important part of this treatment, really, besides stabilizing the crack, was creating a specialized mount to properly support this animal. So I just, I'm really sorry I don't have a picture of the mount, but it went really pretty far down under the tail and then it supported each of the limbs, kind of in a U-shape underneath and it was a museum flat stock mount that was painted out to match the animal. But I just really, the important thing here is that if you have hanging mounts in your institution, particularly in a home, a historic home where you might have heavy items that really have just been there for some time and haven't been checked, you really should check to make sure that they're supporting the weight of the specimen because as we know, mounts haven't always been of the same quality and design as they should be or as they are now. George, do you want to talk about these? Sure, birds are very susceptible to damage and we see this all the time from moving and handling to just the storage. We get a lot of birds that come in that are literally stored in these small boxes and they're trying to pack so many inside there that they get damaged. Very, very common problems. The heads, yep, the head is often the first to go, unfortunately. The head of a bird usually has the real skull inside of it and as you can see, there's usually just a small piece of wire protruding into that. So it's got a lot of weight, it's kind of unbalanced. So when these are really jarred around, the head is usually the first thing to go. The poor woodpecker there is really roughed up as far as his feathers and this could be damage that cannot be reversible. So birds really need a lot of care. So how should you handle and store your collections? Let's talk about some tips for handling taxidermy. Some of these will be familiar to you from dealing with other types of collection items. It's always good practice to inspect for areas of weakness or damage before moving or lifting a specimen. Smaller, lightweight, upright mounts should be handled by the base whenever possible. Avoid handling feathers and fur and be aware that hollow-haired mounts will be especially vulnerable to loss. For example, we can see a moose here. Never handle a moose by the bell, which is underneath the neck there. For heavier, unwieldy head and shoulder mounts such as the one here, without a backing board, always use the buddy system and lift from the stable base of the horns or antlers and the muzzle if necessary. Now, this particular tip may seem counter-intuitive as conservators will typically tell you not to lift objects from appendages or handles but if you remember from George's section on technology that a multitude of materials were utilized for mannequins, these will really vary in weight and structural strength. Further, we learned about the degree of tannage and objects condition and how that will influence the stability of the mount. Taxidermists recommend lifting from the horns or antlers because mounting techniques favor keeping these in place along a strong central armature element. The rack is the most important to the taxidermist, really in their practice, and this is where he or she will focus the structural strength of the piece. So, you know, you should definitely check and make sure there's no delamination and they're not loose before you start doing that. But, you know, this is something that George, that I found interesting as a conservator because that would not necessarily be our first recommendation if you didn't have that knowledge, the taxidermists. And before we leave the subject of handling, I'd like to note some precautions that should be taken when handling and working with historic taxidermy. As you've heard from George, arsenic, and also mercury compounds were routinely used as pesticides in the 19th to mid-20th century taxidermy, and tanskins will frequently contain residues. Further, the taxidermy was often retreated with other pesticide compounds, which are dangerous to human health. As the pesticide formulations changed over time, also the application methods changed. Common techniques included dipping, spraying, aerosol bombing, misting, fumigation, you name it. So objects might have been completely filled or covered with a compound arsenic or other compound over long periods of time. So if you have old specimens with no evidence whatsoever of insect activity, you can assume that this was treated probably pretty heavily with pesticides. The other things we've kind of heard some that lead paint, other heavy metal pigments were used in mount preparation. George mentioned lead earliners, and some taxidermy even has a plaster that might have asbestos within it, armatures that can be friable if they're disturbed. So we recommend personal protective equipment, including lead particulate masks and gloves when handling and cleaning taxidermy. And if you're working in depth, moving or cataloging numerous specimens, you could wear a lab coat, you could wash it separately, or you could wear a disposable Tyvek suit. And we have some information in the handout that will be the online forms that we'll be giving you about doing arsenic spot tests if you just want to try that. But I'm not going to talk too much about that right now. And I'm also briefly just going to mention materials for safe storage. I don't have a lot of details to give you right now because we don't have enough time, but you see at the bottom the stash website, which is wonderful. Check out AIC's storage website to learn more about basics on storage and safe materials. You can type taxidermy into the search button and find some cool examples, like the one at right, of how people have solved their taxidermy storage solutions. And also there's a link to a sort of older WAC article on storage methods for taxidermy specimens, which is still good, and that's available in our handout as well. For taxidermy, in terms of, you know, you've seen a lot of the results of incorrect temperature and relative humidity in terms of cracking and splitting. And so for taxidermy, we generally recommend the colder the better to avoid the accelerated agent inherent with higher temperatures. Temperature is also important as it's related to relative humidity because the mounts are composite objects that we've discussed and the skins are mounted under tension over the form. They're vulnerable to splitting and fluctuating environments. Gradual fluctuations, of course, will reduce the danger of splitting and cracking, but the fewer fluctuations, the better. Again, maintaining the RH under 65% is really important to prevent mold, but you also want to make sure it's not too dry that we'll, from what the drying and cracking again. So taxidermy specimens are artifacts that really do require a moderate and stable environment, ideally 40 to 55% RH. So in addition to those splits and cracks you see here on the slides, you can get a dulling of the glass eyes, you can get corrosion of the metal elements, you can see delamination in horn, tortoise shell, those kinds of things. You can see bloom sometimes and from fatty exudates on the skin themselves. And just as a note, taxidermy and dry collections should not be stored with wet or fluid preserved collections because of their differing environmental and safety needs. It becomes extremely brittle. Almost like parchment paper. And you'll see where it'll start to crack and separate away from the ear liner. Now that ear right there that I am holding is not really damaged. The ear liner itself is still intact. It has not been bent. That is just the skin shrinking and cracking around there. And it's actually been repaired once or twice through history. So we always see a lot of these pieces come in that have actually had fills done to them and repairs. And unfortunately, if they're not done correctly, they just keep degrading. You can see the bent ears of that elin right there. Very, very common what we see. All right. And pollutants is another agent of deterioration we want to mention. Many of the same pollutants that cause human health problems will also damage your animal specimens. The two types we worry most about are particulates and gases. The most problematic pollutant, I would say, which we see in our visits all the time, is simply dust, which contains abrasive particles, especially when the specimens are mounted in inaccessible areas like this at the upper right, which was on top of a very high cabinet you had to get to with a lift. Over time, if not removed, the dust can integrate with the surface of the porous materials as the pores expand and contract. And with the changes in the temperature and relative humidity, the dust can become adhered to finishes and coatings that which tend to soften at warm temperatures. And then another problem is that the dust has a large organic component with vegetable matters, skin and hair, which together are an excellent food source for pests. So regular housekeeping is really important. And then other concerns are the airborne contaminants and acidic gases, which can come from incorrect storage materials or exhibit materials. And you see on the lower left there's a yellowing glassine cover. You know, it's good to have your object covered, but not with an inappropriate material like that. It's really not doing any good for that bird underneath. So one of the most easily avoided types of damage, but which probably has already occurred to your specimens, is light damage. UV light is a particularly damaging part of the spectrum, and because it is not visible to the human eye, it can be removed with films or filters without affecting our viewing experience. Daylight and fluorescent lights are particularly high in UV. Visible light also causes damage and deterioration. This possum specimen here, I'm sorry, was exhibited on a windowsill, which is similar to the one you see at the upper right side. You can see in the top view and the two side views the difference between the exposed side and the unexposed side, which the unexposed side was probably faded as well, but not quite as bad as the exposed side. Light damage, as most of you probably know, is irreversible, although we'll talk about some newer treatments in a little while. So display recommendations for natural science specimens. Fifty lock is generally the upper limit recommended, even though this can result in damage to some types of feathers. You shouldn't worry about flash photography necessarily in your collections, but lights should always be turned off in storage and when you're not using a space. Almost all the fading color you see in the specimens and in feather birds as well is the result of light damage, and it also may affect the structural color. It can break down the keratin, which will then affect the pigment. So if you can at all rotate your objects on display, that's great if you can take them off display for a while to protect them from light. That's a great other simple solution in historic homes or places where you have things out. If you cover the windows whenever the space is not being used, that's another suggestion. Okay, well, this is a problem that everybody seems to be facing, but before we talk about pests, we have one more poll question. Susan, if you could pull up poll question number nine, which is, do you have number nine? Oops, did I miss number eight? Okay, number nine is, do you have a pest management program in place? So you'll see here that, yes, that's great. Well, so most of you do. But you'll see here, substantial portions of the bare amount at left have been denuded by an advanced or mastable infestation. Taxidermy, study skins and dioramas provide a relative smorgasbord for insect and rodent pests. Even if the specimens have been treated with arsenic, as most of them have, or other forms of heavy metal pesticides, they aren't immune to damage. George, do you want to talk a little bit about this bird? You know what, maybe we'll talk about this later, but just remember this one, because we might bring it up again, the bird at right to attack rodent damage, right? Yeah, we're going to talk about that more in the end. I think in time, we'll pass over that. Okay, for the moment. Okay, and just here's some more examples. Here are some details of that tiger mount we saw earlier showing some of the insect damage. And while the fur is present, unfortunately, it's no longer attached to the skin due to grazing at the base and roots of the hair. These objects could not even be vacuumed without substantial loss of hair. And the image at upper right, while not a taxidermy specimen, shows a first nations fur coat which had a very similar condition, but after cleaning. So the beige areas, which are the skin, used to be covered in brown fur, and this is just shown to you as a cautionary tale. When in doubt about the stability, please always consult a conservator before you even attempt dry cleaning. Okay, so I'm quickly going to just show you fire. Fire can potentially lead to the quick and catastrophic loss of an entire collection. Reducing the risk of fire needs to be done at several levels.  In terms of taxidermy itself, the soot residues can be difficult to remove. High temperatures during a fire event, as well as water from firefighting can cause skins to break down, or even to gelatinize. High humidity after a fire can lead to mold growth. So the images at left and right are a before and during treatment of a soot and grease damage, less or coot or rug. And here are some more images of what that would want. I don't know if you can tell. It's a bird, a duck, at the top completely covered in soot, and there's a before and after. Just dry cleaning of another specimen. Okay, water is another thread. And George is going to talk a little bit about water as a threat to your collections. The first slide you see on the left there is the whale shark mount. And this is a natural skin mount of a whale shark at the Vanderbilt Museum on Centerport, Long Island. And what happened was a pipe basically leaked on this piece and just caused a steady drip, which the water migrated underneath the skin, between the skin and the mannequin, and really caused this piece to come apart. The large panels of skin were falling off this piece like wallpaper, really, really terrible condition. The piece on the right is a doll sheep mount, or was a doll sheep mount. And this is one of the paper mannequins. And you'll see that water will start to de-elaminate this paper. You'll start to see any of the fasteners or little brads that were used by the taxidermists will rust, oxidize, really tear these mannequins apart. And this is where we'll talk about heavily damaged pieces. What's the protocol? What do we do? Often there comes a point where a client will ask us, do we restore this piece? Do we conserve it, or do we get rid of it? And that's a great question.  We cannot restore the skin. This piece was completely destroyed. But the horns still have a value. The horns are still the essence of the piece as far as the client is concerned. So we can restore this mannequin and actually mount a new cape on this mannequin or get a contemporary mannequin and do a completely new mount with a new cape but the same set of horns. So there's a lot of options that are usually available to the client. And basically we look at these and we go down a checklist. When it comes to a point where a specimen is really damaged, we look at the rarity of the specimen. How rare is this piece? Is it an animal that's endangered? Is it protected? Does it have any historic value? Even if it's a common specimen, does the piece have historic value that we cannot let anything happen to this piece and we must restore or conserve this piece? The other would be the availability of a fresh specimen. If you're dealing with something that we cannot get a new specimen, then everything must be done to preserve the existing one. The cost to treat. A lot of times our clients will ask us to weigh out the differences. What is it going to cost to treat the piece versus what is it going to cost to replace the piece? And with a lot of smaller institutions, that's a big decision making factor. What do we do with this piece? Sometimes with the price of taxidermy today, it's actually more cost effective to replace the piece with a new specimen than to treat the piece. But again, many things need to be considered and taken into consideration. Of course, you know your collection best. It all is tied into the nature of your collection, the mission, and other philosophical things that we will get into a little bit more later as well. I just want to crank through these last two. Agents of deterioration, which are just to make sure you have disaster. Disaster planning is just so important that we like to mention it whenever possible. This is an image of burpee museum specimens, which were in temporary storage after a burst pipe from refrigerated temperatures on a Christmas Eve flood damage. So good emergency preparedness can mitigate certain hazards and ensure other emergencies don't turn into disasters. So there's a lot of resources online, and please make sure to include taxidermy in your disaster planning. And then just security. Putting up a physical barrier for security is really important to protect specimens, but more importantly for health protection since potential contaminants, as we've discussed, from manufacturer or the past treatment can really be hazardous to your visitors. So now we're going to get into treatment. And Susan, if you could pull up poll question number 10, we'd like to know from all of you who takes care of your taxidermy. Because we've been talking, we have a conservator and a taxidermist, and if you have mounster of hair, who would you turn to? I think George and I have had a lot of conversations about this, but I think ideally both, if you can have a partnership, we really want to have the caveat here that George happens to be a person who has worked a lot with museums and understands the AIC code of ethics and understands the things that AIC, the museum, the level of care from having worked with conservators as well. I think that as he told us earlier, there's a wide range of taxidermists and I think that some people have never been familiar with the museum environment and would feel, in their practice, would feel comfortable changing things out and doing heavy levels of restoration that perhaps would not be appropriate for your collection. So it really has to be a kind of approach where you work together with a taxidermist and a conservator, but I don't know. George, do you want to say anything now about that or when we get into the treatment? Sure. You know, in early times, we saw a lot of taxidermists that basically did a little bit of everything and were very tuned into museum work. Today, it's changed quite a bit and a lot of taxidermists do not have the experience dealing with museum specimens or conservators. So I think it really just needs to be something where the institution needs to be very cautious on who they speak with and who they hire. And I think the key is both, is to work with a good conservator and work with a qualified taxidermist. But I think you more so need to check the qualifications of your taxidermist or leave that up to your conservator. So essentially, your conservator should manage your taxidermist because most taxidermists do not know about these methods and materials, unfortunately. They're just not exposed to it and there's really no need for it in the commercial taxidermy world today. Right. Okay. So I'm just going to quickly go through some treatment methods that conservators would use and then George is going to talk about some of his, too. So conservators employ a variety of tools and materials for cleaning taxidermy, depending on the type of mount, wet or solvent clean is used on selected areas and maybe necessary when a mount has not been regularly maintained or has been in a fire, smoke, or other event, but is kind of, you have to think, is a much less common approach. Poll question number 11, Susan, if you could pull that up. I just would like to ask what steps you all have taken to maintain or treat your taxidermy. So let's see. Brush vacuum cleaning. While keeping your mounts free of dirt and debris is essential, we don't recommend DIY cleaning unless you've had training from a conservator or other experienced person. You could have a taxidermist if reputable taxidermist as well. As you've heard, these mounts are complex and may have unseen issues that only become apparent upon close inspection. Cleaning must be done taking the safety precautions we've mentioned and using the personal protective equipment. And in many cases, you want to use a, well, you have to use a HEPA vacuum, a high-efficiency particulate air filter because of some of these materials we talked about as well as, very often, we clean through a mesh screen, which is specially designed for this purpose. In terms of treatment, you'll find a conservator would be doing a stabilization treatment for you very often. In images above, the moose had a vertical split on the cheek, which was lifted and disfiguring. The conservation treatment involved the addition of a heat-set adhesive and a tone-synthetic fabric to realign the skin. Below the monitor lizard, TOE has been stabilized in a similar manner to prevent the film material from spilling out. In this case, as we saw, it was part of a contemporary art sculpture, which was viewed from a great distance. You know, George, a taxidermist might have other ideas, but this is kind of more of a conservative conservation approach. So I think we're going to kind of, we found out we have to hurry it along now, and I do want to get to George's example. So I'm going to go quickly through here. As you've seen, bird mounts can look ragged over time, and vacuum cleaning with very low suction and microbrush tip allows you to gently reprene feathers back into alignment. And this is something that really needs to be done by a conservator, or again, you could be trained by a conservator to do it, but it's something that we would not recommend doing yourself. In terms of pest control, there are several methods. This is an example of an anoxic treatment. This tiger had extensive insect damage and was placed in a chamber with oxygen scavengers in order to kill, for 30 days, in order to kill all stages of possible insect growth from eggs up into the adults. Freezing may be suitable for some mounts, but it really depends on the specific composite of materials present, and a normal household freezer will not suffice. You really need to consult a conservator for this. I'm happy all of you have a pest management program. I hope it's more of an integrated pest management where you're really doing prevention, monitoring, and then illumination when necessary, but we really try to prevent things. And we're going to have some resources on the links, too, about IPM, so if you need more information. Here's an example of a skin repair. It's not the same object, but it's just showing you something that could be done. Okay, so something that could be done on a heavily damaged piece, whether you would want to do this, is very debatable, so I'm not going to talk more about it. It's just an example, and I'm rushing through because we just found out we have to end at 2.15. So here's another example of a fill, in this case on a small hedgehog, and it was done using toned bamboo and epoxy to place it in place. George had this picture of a prior restoration that was done with incompatible materials and a beautiful elephant, so we just wanted to show you kind of what happens if you use the wrong materials. Okay, so George, I'm not sure how we should proceed. We have four minutes. Are we going to be cut off in four minutes, Susan? What? Is it true? Will we be totally cut out? Okay. So, George, are you there? Well, we can go through this. That's fine. Basically, we just have some treatment shots there, you can see, of the whale shark, where just to basically illustrate that if these pieces seem to be really in disrepair, sometimes there is something that could be done. So the whale shark there, that was on Centerport, Long Island. We have some pictures of this red howler monkey where we actually rehydrated the face, rebuilt facial features, moved the entire structure of the face. The next slide, you'll see this polar bear where we actually removed the jaw set, rebuilt all the lips on the jaw, rebuilt a new nose, installed a new tongue. So these are more invasive restorations. Yes. Same thing on this chimpanzee here, removing the paint from the face, repainting the face, doing some structural work. Same thing on the proboscis monkey, where you can see it really kind of, you can update an old piece very nicely by a severe restoration. Right. Same thing with the koalas. Okay. This is some flocks were made. So again, you know, the degree of restoration you're going to do, it really depends, is very dependent on your collection and what the purpose of your artifacts are at the age, and I think that's something that needs to be made, decisions that need to be made very carefully in conjunction, you know, your curator in conjunction with a curator.


Teamwork Team A team is a group of people working together to complete something. You may work in a team at work or in class to complete a project. Each member of a team is important. Project An activity or assignment that you work on is called a project. In class, students are often asked to complete projects and turn them in by a specific date. Successful When you are successful, it means that you have done something well. Successful completion of a project means that you have finished it and met all of the requirements. Helpful Helpful means to be willing or ready to give help. Being helpful is an important skill to have when working on a team. Everyone must help one another on the project. Difficult When something is challenging, that means it is difficult. Working on a project with a team can be difficult at times. You should remain positive and keep a good attitude. Focus When you focus, you pay attention to only one thing. For example, when you work on a team project, you need to focus on what you are asked to do by your team. Respect When you treat someone kindly and listen to their ideas, you show respect for them. When you work on a team, it is important to respect the members of your team. Role The position that you hold on a team or in a group is called a role. Team members each play a different role and each role is important. Plan When you have a set of steps to complete something, you have a plan. People who work on a project create a plan so that everyone knows what needs to be done. Organize When you organize something, you put it in order. For example, a project plan is organized based on the order that things need to be completed by the team. Responsibility A responsibility is something that you must do. Each member of a team is assigned different responsibilities. Your responsibilities depend on your role. The end


subscribe to our YouTube page and click the show more tab where you can view valuable links pertaining to this product, similar how-to videos, and our low-cost no-contract alarm monitoring services.


Hello and welcome to This Week in the City. Highlights brought to you by the Public and Media Relations Department. I'm your host, Alicia Utsi. This week is National Public Service Recognition Week and the City of Columbia extends its thanks and appreciation to our over 2,200 employees who helped make this city a great place to live, work and play. Make sure you visit our social media networks to see testimonials from various city employees who share their stories about why they chose to work in public service. Also this week on Monday, the Planning Commission will meet at 5.15 p.m. at City Hall and Council Chambers. For agenda items visit our website at columbisc.net. Also on Monday evening Mayor Steve Benjamin will be inaugurated as the new President for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. This event is open to the public and it will be held at the Columbia Convention Center on Lincoln Street. If you would like to attend, please RSVP by visiting the city's website and looking for the announcement regarding Mayor Benjamin's new presidency as the U.S. Conference of Mayor's President. Also on Tuesday, Boza, the Board of Zoning Appeals, will meet at City Hall at 10 a.m. For agenda items visit our website at columbisc.net. On Wednesday, at-large City Council members Tameka Azadevine and Howard DeVall will host their at-large public open house. You must call ahead to make an appointment by calling 545-3061. Again this is on Wednesday and appointments can be set by calling 545-3061. This time they're meeting at Sims Park in District 3. On Thursday please join us for the DDRC meeting Design Development Review Commission. The meeting begins at 4 p.m. at City Hall and Chambers and for agenda items visit our website. As we roll into the weekend don't forget that on Sunday it is Mother's Day and on behalf of the City of Columbia we extend a special thanks and appreciation for all the great moms in our city. In honor of National Public Service Recognition Week I'd like to leave you with a special message about why I chose to serve. As a public servant I get to give back to my community. I get to serve those in our city who need information, who need resources and who need vital city services. As the Chief City Communicator it's my job to make sure that our citizens and business owners and community leaders know what's happening in our community. Well it's a busy week in the city and we hope you make it a great one.


Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD, metabolic syndrome, METS, and type 2 diabetes, T2DM, are interrelated metabolic disorders that have a significant impact on public health worldwide, with METS being a complex condition characterized by glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, associated pro-inflammatory state, and arterial hypertension. Effective management of these disorders involves early diagnosis and optimal treatment of each condition to improve glycemic and lipids regulation, liver steatosis, and arterial hypertension, which can prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases and liver fibrosis. This article was authored by Boyan Mitrovic, Zoran Gluvik, Milan Mobradovic, and others.


No, that should be good, right? Should be good, right? Welcome back to Life Lessons in Film, and we are doing a very short video to let you know that we haven't forgotten about you to release a video today. We have one ready, and we got totally blocked by copyright. We've had a few copyright claims before, but usually it's just a, oh, you can't monetize it. This time it's full on blocked. We challenged it, or appealed it, or what have you. So hopefully it gets released the next couple of days, but we just wanted to release a short little thing just so, you know, we'll explain, let you know, communicate, and we're taking the serious. So we commit to two times a week, and we're going to have our hot water, we'll release something two times a week. Yeah, so, oh yeah, it's Wednesday and Sunday, whatever. Oh yeah, we kind of didn't make, here's also the official switch in case anyone was confused. We're doing a Sunday and Wednesday now instead of Saturday and Tuesday. This is now officially, now you know, we switched it on the banner, but we didn't say anything else. Still tweaking, still tinkering, still finessing, yeah, that's it. So hopefully it gets released in the next few days, and you can check out that video and we'll have another one coming Sunday as well. Yeah. Yeah, so take care. Bye. Bye now. See you soon. That's a wrap.


Pangeenomes provide useful resources for evolutionary studies, functional genomics, and breeding of cultivated plants. Here, the authors report a new rice pangeenome including 73 Asian rice and two wild relatives, or as a Rufipagan and L. Pantata and reveal the prevalence and scale of large inversions across the pangeenome. This article was authored by Yongju, Chachou Yu, Demetro Chepotarov, and others.


Did I hear that you trained with Demar in the off-season a little bit? No, I didn't train with him, but I hung out with him one time in off-season. Just your thoughts about the situation just two days ago, and kind of what did you say to the team yesterday? Yeah, it's been praying every day, thinking about him. And just heavy on my heart about the whole situation and praying for his family and praying everything works out. I know God's a healer, so he'll see it through and he wakes up and be with his family and continue to enjoy his life. And like a lot of people said, we risk our lives playing this game and sometimes you don't think something like that can happen. But I'm just glad that they were there to respond and help as quickly as they can to get them to the medical center. And I've just been praying for him and just told the team to be grateful for every day for this game and life in general. Cuz nothing's problems to us, anything can happen in the blink of an eye. And just always give God thanks for what you have. Cuz as a kid, we want to play this game and live this dream.  Derek, is there talk about whether or not games should be played this weekend? Or is it just this is what we do, we are playing this weekend, especially this team with so much on the stakes? I think they handled that game and that situation very well on both sides. And the unity that they both showed with that situation that happened. But I mean, I think we still have to play. I know a lot of guys probably shook up by it. I was a whole NFL community and all the players and things like that. I know everybody around just praying for Damar. But I mean, I think we still have to play this game set. So, but at the end of the day, I think everybody's just praying for everybody's safety and want to be as safe as possible. What do you think, sitting out a week, we'll help you with in terms of rest, rejuvenation, anything like that. Can you feel any bit of difference as you get ready this week? I don't feel 29 a day, that helps. But yeah, I mean, I feel great, like you said, got to rest and ready to get back to work. How much do you feel like this team's mindset doesn't really matter what happened the last six weeks if we went on Saturday? We kind of put in action what we want to do in the postseason? Yeah, I think just having a positive mindset is coming ready to work. I'm ready to get better, push each other every single day on all three phases. And just be very detailed in everything that we do, leaders doing their job to help bring their intensity and just doing that until Saturday. I know you find motivation in any way possible. A lot of the guys talking to them, they said that the fact that nobody's picking you guys, they relish that, they love that situation. How do you approach that? Do you look at that as like a form of motivation for yourself? Yeah, I really try to get too much in the outside stuff and nobody picking us, but we still got a lot of them go play. So it's just no trust we're leaving the guys we got here and what we do. And to continue to work until Saturday and then see what happens on Saturday. Derek, this core group has won a lot of big games together in particular, a lot of big road games. And sometimes maybe it is people picking it or whatever it is. A lot of people think that maybe you get hurt last year, for example, go out to LA and get a big win. You've been a part of a lot of those wins. Why is there a consistent element of this team that has been a part of that? I just think we trust and believe in the culture here, the guys here, and teammates in our game plan and what we want to do. The style of football we like to play. And I think it's just wanting to get back into that, coming to work every day. With a great mindset, positive attitude, and wanting to get better and pushing each other to be better. Just want me to go out there, be execute and do what you do on Saturday. What did you see from Josh, the way he played Thursday night, and just kind of his approach and practice going forward? Yeah man, just great demeanor, poise, taking control of the huddle, going out there, taking what the defense gives him. And he's had that demeanor since he's got here. And then being in there with him this week, he's locked in and I'm excited for him. When you look back at that first game, do you see a lot in the first quarter that tells you how you guys can get going against them? I mean, yeah, we have some positive plays, we're moving the ball. We just had some stuff inflicted the wounds with turnovers and things like that. But I think you just watch that film and you learn from it. See the things that we did well to try to go emulate that during the game on Saturday, but just the stuff inflicted the wounds, we can't have those. Is there anything else specifically why the run game was successful against Jaguars last time? I just think, guys coming off the ball, blocking, being physical. One-cut runs, everything they repeat about in the run game. Just trying to dominate the line of scrimmage. Thank God for the great job of doing that. And trying to continue that until this week and lead it to Saturday. Do you have any birthday plans? No, I'm just thankful to see another one. Does it seem to say you'd like a win for your birthday? Definitely, for sure. You got anybody in your friend group that is a Jags fan that would potentially trash talk you this week? Or they wouldn't be in your friend group if they were doing that? Guys I'm with in the high school who are Jags fans, but they don't really talk trash. I mean, guys I play football with in high school, Jags fans, they're all from that area. And the people around from my hometown probably are Jags fans as well. But nobody talks trash. They probably will during the game, but I won't hear them. But what have they done well defensively?  I think they play very well together. I think they are solid from the front and all the way to their secondary. I think their defense lines are disruptive. Linebackers are fast, they're smart, they flow very well. Secondary, they tackle very well, very experienced. And they rally from each other anytime they make a big play. So they've been playing very well, I think on all three phases. And I know it's going to be tough on Saturday. Derek, you've never been known as a fumble or anything like that. Are you doing anything extra in terms of ball security, anything individually and practice? Yeah, definitely. I've been trying to do the best I can to work on it, harp on it. Me and Coach Jude is working on it a lot. Whenever we are doing anything with the ball, just make sure I'm keeping it high and tight, being conscious of it. When I'm out there, trying to fight for extra yards. That's usually when stuff like that happens, you're not paying attention and deepens the players coming back, come from behind, raking the ball out and just doing everything I can to make sure I take care of the ball and don't put us in no critical situation when the ball comes out. Craig, Stoney is in position to set a mark, potentially, that has stood for decades. Is it almost a little ridiculous to think about a record that has stood for that long being at peril by a rookie? Yeah, it's obviously a great thing that he's done so far this year. To be honest with you, we really haven't talked to him which I'm sure he knows about it. But our main focus is to punt the ball as well as we possibly can because Jacksonville's got a dynamic returner in number 39 Jamal Agnew and we've got to do a hell of a job of stopping him. So if he ends up getting the record great, be extremely proud of him, be extremely proud of all the other guys that helped him. So yeah, to be honest with you, we haven't really talked about it, but I'd be happy for him though. What about on the net side of things, like how are you guys doing as far as getting that hang time where it needs to be? Yeah, we need to continue to work on that. It wasn't what we wanted this past week. So we'll continue to have him get up and through the ball because when teams end up getting eight man on us, where they're making everyone protect and we're singled out on the outside, we got to do a great job of getting hang time so our gunners can go down there and make plays, whether it's tackles, whether it's fair catches, all those things are going to help our team win the game. So we're going to really focus in on that today also as well as we did yesterday. How's he done on directional punting? It doesn't seem like you guys have done a lot of using one sideline or the other to try to have that extra man. Yeah, great question, because it's a totally different philosophy than what we had the past years. And we want to obviously play to his strengths too. And he's a guy that obviously can get a lot of yards on his punts. So the directional isn't what we're used to but we'll continue to work with him but we really want him to work on getting direction, hang time, and then when he can put them all together obviously our pun team does well. Play so many guys this year. What kind of challenges that presents you when you've got so many guys rotating maybe in and out of your units? Yeah, it is challenging but it's fun because we're getting new guys in a bunch and they have an opportunity to go make plays. So, you know, we really have to sit down and try to focus in on each individual skill set and see what they can do really well. And if it's running down the field as fast as they possibly can to go cut off the field we'll end up doing that. But I think that's a great part of and the challenge of coaching is when you work with new guys you've got to play to their skill set. So that's something that we have fun doing and hopefully ends up working out for us. How much has Josh been able to absorb and how much does an actual full practice week help considering he's had maybe four or five days of actual full practices since he got here? Yeah, it's been impressive how much he's been able to retain from one week to the next and then, you know, where we've been able to add things. He has a really good understanding of football been around a lot of systems and so he's able to, you know, kind of acclimate himself a little bit quicker than maybe, you know, a rookie wood or a younger player. How do you like the way he was able to keep things on schedule and execute the offense in his first start? Yeah, I thought it was a testament to his poise and his control, you know. He was in command most of the night and I thought it showed and, you know, that's what we're looking for is to, you know, make sure that we're not putting ourselves in bad positions offensively and I think he did a nice job of that. What have you learned about him, Todd, compared to what you, the information you had when he came in and what have you learned since he's been in the building? Yeah, tremendous work ethic. You know, I didn't know Josh all that well coming into this thing but he loves football, he's passionate about it. Starting to see a little bit more of his personality now that he's in this role and the way he interacts with his teammates, wide receivers and tight ends in particular. You know, and he's done a nice job, you know, running the line of scrimmage and making some checks and protection adjustments and all that. So it's been fun to watch the progress. I guess decide what to add to his plate this week as you go forward in terms of what he can handle of the offense and how he can get on the same page with the receivers. It's certainly, you know, it's paired with what we want to try to attack in Jacksonville's defense, you know? So being able to kind of look at that together, see what kind of concepts may hit his brain or he has exposure with or history with, you know, and being able to find that blend. So I think there's a balance there and certainly one input from him, you know, as we go through this process together and he's done a nice job of communicating. So from the turnovers, Todd, what do you think you guys can do better than in the previous Jacksonville game aside from the turnovers? Yeah, you know, obviously the turnovers is a number one, you know, but we also had a couple of times in the second half where we put ourselves way behind the sticks with kind of those self-inflicted wounds. So, you know, we're going to have to stay ahead of schedule and make sure we're not putting ourselves, you know, in bad situations. You and Mike have both consistently said that you intend to get the ball more to trailing and more to jig, but we haven't seen like the all go with that. Is this, shouldn't this be the kind of game where you're all in with the two most dangerous guys? Yeah, we hope so, and certainly have made attempts to, just because the production hasn't been there, it doesn't mean the effort hasn't. So we're always looking for ways to get our playmakers the football and this week, certainly that's paramount. Well, he potentially maybe helped back a little bit in the second half on Thursday, just to limit his snaps coming to this one or maybe what was going on with that Thursday night? Yeah, certainly we were trying to be competitive and go in that game, you know, but you wanted to be intentional and purposeful about people's rep counts or maybe what you were showing at a certain point and things of that nature. It's also an evaluation process for Josh and so there were a lot of things that factored into that. Mike mentioned earlier in the week about the inability to practice with speed over the last five, six weeks. The fact you're able to maybe do more of that this week, how much should that help Josh and how much maybe help other guys as well? I think it helps everybody, you know, even just the energy yesterday at practice, you know, being able to move around and get guys, you know, working full speed together kind of created that chemistry and that excitement, you know, to get on the same page and so that's always something that we're gonna relish is the opportunity to get out there and work as close to full speed tempo as we can and that's where chemistry is built, particularly with, you know, some new pieces in there. You mentioned the reps, how does that work as far as regulating who's going in, what package is, et cetera? Is that something, a conversation yourself with the position coach? Mike Brable, like how does that whole thing? You mean game day or throughout the course of the week? Yeah, so we do a lot of tagging out of our personnel groups, meaning we'll tag specific players that we want in there and so we try to handle it as best we can through that but then there's dialogue throughout the course of the game if there's a certain player that we're trying to, you know, see on a certain route or he's maybe playing a little faster than somebody else is or more physical. So you make those in-game adjustments, you know, some positions it's a little bit more relevant than others. You know, Derek's going to go until he's too tired to go, you know, but certainly at the wide receiver and tight end positions that that rotation can be a little bit fluid. And is there a build up for that leading up to the, like the week leading up to the game as far as like general, okay, this guy, we got to make sure he gets this amount of reps. We're going to get him this amount, et cetera. Yeah, I think it's hard to put a certain rep count, you know, goal if you will, because you don't know how the game is going to go. Right. And so what you try to do is as you're game planning, you try to balance it out or handle it within those personnel groupings to say, okay, we have enough in the game plan for so-and-so, we have enough in the game plan for so-and-so. And it kind of, you know, matures from there. So it's all part of the process of figuring out, you know, what tools are going to be available and, you know, how we can use them. You had a season high and pass attempts against the Cowboys. How much of that was a product of Derrick not being available versus wanting to get a full look at Josh and what he could do in the pass game? Yeah, I think certainly both contributed. You know, wanting to be able to see what Josh could do with his opportunities. Wanted to be able to try to get some guys' opportunities on the outside as well. And then, you know, when you don't have Derrick back there, you're not quite as tempted to turn around and hand it off as much as you can. Say, Traylon has done this.  How has he maybe been able to overcome that and progress in your opinion? Yeah, it's been a process. You know, there's been challenges to Traylon's kind of back and forth availability. And I think that Rob Moore's worked very hard to try to help him kind of understand the nuances of this offense and, you know, some of the challenges of the position at this level. You know, some things technique-wise that he wasn't really able to work on too much whether it be, you know, the early part of his development pre-season, you know, and then when he was unavailable for a little while during the season. So, you know, that's been a journey for him. But I think he's worked very hard and he understands the work that it's going to take to get where he wants to get. Very competitive guy. And, you know, I believe he's on the right trajectory. How many receivers with enough receptions to qualify? Robert's got the lowest yards per target in the league. How much of that's him? How much of that's what you're calling for him? How much of that's quarterback? You know, I think they're all contributing factors. You know, always be looking for ways to generate more explosives and try to get more yards in production.  But, you know, I think there are a lot of contributing factors that go into that. Robert has done a nice job with some of the underneath zone adjustments and finding the holes in the defense underneath for us. And sometimes those don't produce the most yards. What was the, I guess, conversation like with Malik when he was told it was going to be Josh and how has he kind of handled the day since? Yeah, you don't get to this level without being a competitor. So I'm sure that there's, you know, a competitive spirit in there that was a little bit stung by it. I'll leave, you know, his reactions up to Sharon with you guys personally. But I know that, you know, he's a high character and highly competitive individual who wants to be out there. As far as Lawrence coming to this game compared to the last time you saw him, just where has he had his best? Yeah, I mean, he's playing at a really high level right now. Think he's throwing for over 1,200 yards these last five games, throwing eight touchdowns these last five games, had a really good day against us the first time around. And again, I think when he plays well, they win, right? And that's what they've been doing. They're playing as hot as anybody right now. They've got dynamic playmakers across the board, outside, the running back, the tight end, obviously. They're all dangerous with the ball in their hands. They all can take it to distance and they're all making plays for him right now. And he's doing a great job of finding all of them. Is there anything specific that you attribute to them playing at a high level right now? Because they've had the playmakers, but they've really kind of taken it up a notch last time. Yeah, I think his comfort level with what they're doing, I think he's doing a really good job of understanding what he's seeing defensively, getting the ball to the right people at the right times.  But yeah, he's doing a good job, I think just his understanding of what he's seeing and being able to deliver the football, you know? And then obviously with ETM back there, that's a different dynamic too, that you gotta be ready to stop him so that adds another element to it. How was it then? I think that film, you know, what problems did Evan and Grim kind of pose for your guys' defense and how can you kind of look at that to fix that specific point? Yeah, I think there was a lot of run after the catch. He had the one play down in the end zone where he went up and caught it and made a play. I thought we were in pretty good coverage and we just didn't make it and he made it, which good players do. But there was a lot of catch and run elements to it. There was the under in the red zone that he caught and ran in on us. There was the two minute one, a third and short that he ran the juke route, caught it and ran for another 20. The screen was another big play for him. So when he has the ball in his hands, he's tough to deal with in the open field and he's able to create yards, you know? So we gotta do a good job challenging him that line of scrimmage. I felt like he won. He won some of those one-on-one matchups and was able to get the ball in his hands and do what he does. And he's another one that's probably playing the best football as a tight end in the NFL right now. If you flew him last week, he's had like a surge in production. What have you seen? But is it game plan? Just targets going his way. What have you seen? Yeah, I think the quarterback likes him.  If you throw it to him for five yards and he ends up getting 25, like I throw it to that guy a lot, right? Cause he's patting the stats with relatively easy throws, you know? So I think there's a, the quarterback has confidence in him, right? There's a confidence level that's growing throughout. And he's always been a dynamic playmaker and he's coming on and he's playing at a really high level right now. He is. If you get to a Christian. They have been playing a lot of snaps outside, which is, I guess it's not ideal to have to have two rookies out there as much as you have. But are they, have they been kind of getting picked on a little bit though, being rookies out there? Yeah, I mean, I think, I think all offenses game plan and try to figure out where their strengths are compared to where they feel like they can have some advantage, you know? And they're going to try to attack those things. Maybe it was good to see Trey respond there late in the game last week because it wasn't going good for him. And he knows that up until that point, but he came back, he challenged late in the game. Late, we were able to go field on third down.    And don't wait around for the opportunity to come because when it does, you're not going to be ready, you know? So, I mean, I'm kind of, I'm pleased with where those guys have been. I know they've given up some plays here and there, but I think they continue to challenge, they continue to try to do the things we coach them to do. And hopefully come Saturday night, a few of those plays turn our way. If you get Christian back at a high level, what would that mean for the Stephens? Yeah, I mean, we'll see where he's at as we get going here through the week. I mean, he did a little bit yesterday and we'll see kind of where it goes here these next few days. But I think just the experience, you know, he's played a lot of ball. He's covered some good receivers in this league and he's gonna be covering some really good ones this week if he plays. So I think that's an aspect of it. And then just really, I think, his understanding of what we're trying to do, what we ask of these guys in our scheme and everything else. Again, these rookies, they're not really rookies anymore. They've all played a lot of football for us. But there is an element of experience and just a little bit further understanding with certain things in regards to our defense and also the offense and how they're attacking us. Like shutting down the run for you guys for a long part of this season, you know, made the other team one dimensional that really helped the pass rush too. Has that lesson, I mean, even though you've been shutting down the run for the most part, is that not necessarily equated to, you know, better pass rush as well? Yeah, we just haven't defended the pass. You know, I don't think that has anything to do with the run game. I think it's just we haven't done a good enough job defending the pass, affecting the quarterback, covering the guys, executing our zones. Like we just got to do a better job of making sure we're all on the same page and our coverage understanding what we're asking them to do and then being able to go out there and execute and we got to find ways to affect the quarterback. How beneficial was it just to have that rest for Danico Autry and looks like he's got some re-energized energy out there. You know, just watching him at practice.  I think when he was hurt, you know, coming back, like he's an older guy who's got a bunch of nagging things, right, so it might be one injury, but he's really getting treatment and getting healthy with all the other stuff he has going on. But he is, he brings that energy, that excitement. I think he's really excited to play this week to get back out there. And when he was down those four or five weeks, like he's a guy that's grumpy, you know, like he's mad. He doesn't want to be in that training room at all ever. Like he wants to be out here practicing, playing. And I think there's just, kind of develops an appreciation when you lose something for a little while and then you're able to get back out here and practice and play and be around the guys. Like I think that appreciation, that gratefulness to be back out here shows. Should be best combined version of he and Simmons that we've seen since October 23rd. Yeah, I mean, we haven't seen him together in a while. So that's what we're hoping, you know, that's why they're here. So hopefully those two guys have a good game for us and find ways to affect the quarterback. Inside linebackers group, obviously you got, maybe Dylan possibly coming back the way Jack's played recently with Monty, with that rotation. How do you feel about that going to this game? Yeah, I think they've taken big strides. I do, I think Jack has been great for us these past two weeks. He just does a great job of understanding our defense, communicating, getting lined up, being in the right spot. He does the things we coach him to do every single play. Like he's gonna be where he's supposed to be and he's gonna know how teams can try to find the weakness in the play and the coverage and the run scheme, whatever it might be. So he's a very cerebral player that it helps him a lot out there. And I think it helps a lot of our other guys. I think it brings comfort to a lot of our other guys here in his voice. Monty's been progressing. He has, he's made a lot of plays for us when he's been out there running around, hitting, I think it's improved each week with him and then getting Dylan back. We can't kind of see where he fits in the mold, but hopefully he's ready to go and he can be locked in and make plays when he's asked to make them. Like when they're there, hopefully we can all show up and make the plays when we have our opportunities.