Animal World, National Museum of Scotland

From frozen ice caps to sweltering deserts, from the deepest oceans to high into the sky and everywhere in between – animals have amazing ways of moving around, eating, having babies, fighting and protecting themselves.

Our dramatic Animal World gallery introduces the main themes of behaviour and interaction with the environment. Here you can explore the lives of animals from around the world, from the Arctic to Australia, and even see how you measure up – do you weigh more than a chimpanzee?

Meet endangered species such as Ching Ching the Giant Panda or our Scottish Wildcat, and marvel at the spectacular array of swimming and flying animals in the Wildlife Panorama.

Animal Senses
Explore how animals communicate in our Animal Senses gallery on Level 3. Animal’s five senses help us to discover the world around us and communicate with others. Our brains process what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell.

All animals have their own ways of sensing, many very different to our own – sharper sight, keener smell, super-sensitive touch, or even senses that are completely beyond our experience.

Survival
Move up to Survival on Level 5 to learn how animal have evolved to thrive – or faced extinction. The ability of a species to adapt to its environment is key to its survival. Evolution nad extinction are constantly happening, changing the diversity of life on Earth.

What we do to the world around us affects these processes dramatically and threatens the survival of life as we know it.

Adventure Planet
Children can get hands on in our interactive Adventure Planet gallery, whether they’re uncovering the skeleton of a dinosaur, dressing up to dive to the bottom of the sea or crawling through the roots of a giant oak tree to discover the species living there.

Highlight

Ching Ching the Giant Panda
Meet Ching Ching the panda, one of the world’s most endangered species in Survival at National Museum of Scotland.

There are thought to be just 1,600 giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) left in China, mostly living in the mountain areas of the south west. With their natural forest habitat threatened by agriculture and China’s growing human population, giant pandas are one of the world’s most endangered species.

Scottish wildcat
Rarer than the tiger, the Scottish wildcat is Britain’s last native cat species. Find out more about this elusive feline and the efforts being made to ensure it has a future.

The Scottish wildcat is Britain’s last native cat species. Although closely related, it is not the ancestor of the domestic cat, Felis catus, which originated from the Middle Eastern wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, at least 4,000 years ago.

Wildcats are longer legged, more robust and about 25% bigger than domestic cats; females are about the same size as male domestic cats. Wildcats are striped tabby cats with a ringed, bushy, blunt, black-tipped tail.

National Museum of Scotland
National Museum of Scotland for collections of national and international importance, preserving them, interpreting them and making them accessible to as many people as possible.

National Museum of Scotland work with museums and communities across Scotland and beyond, introducing our collections to a much wider audience than can physically visit our museums, through partnerships, research, touring exhibitions, community engagement, digital programmes and loans.

National Museum of Scotland preserve, interpret and make accessible for all, the past and present of Scotland, other nations and cultures, and the natural world. National Museums of Scotland inspiring people, connecting Scotland to the world and the world to Scotland.

National Museum of Scotland’s collections are a legacy which we look after on behalf of everyone in Scotland. Our wealth of objects represent everything from Scottish and classical archaeology to applied arts and design; from world cultures and social history to science, technology and the natural world.

The National Museums Collection Centre, in Edinburgh, is home to millions of items not currently on display. It also houses state-of-the-art facilities for conservation, taxidermy and academic research.

Through research, National Museum of Scotland aim to explain the significance of the millions of objects in our care to a wider audience. How we interpret our collections can increase public understanding of human history and the natural environment.

Natural World galleries
A giant T.rex guards our Natural World galleries, where we ask the big questions: how does the world work? What do we know about it? What is our place in the universe?

Hundreds of fascinating animals are brought together in our Natural World galleries to illustrate the extraordinary variety of life on earth.