The Beijing Natural History Museum opened its meticulously designed "Animals' Secrets" exhibition to the public last week.

"The fundamental design concept is clearly tied to the theme of better popularizing animal science, presenting biodiversity and raising people's awareness of protecting wild animals," said Li Chengfen, curator of the museum, which is the largest of its kind in China.

Totally different from the past stereotyped pattern that emphasized the evolutionary process, the opening exhibits are arranged in different themes, accompanied by models of animal habitats.

There are also items that visitors can touch, to get a fully interactive experience.

"Visitors are lured in and compelled to learn about the animals' secrets," Li said.

"And in the process, they will hopefully come to understand why the animals and their habitats need our protection."

Visitors to the museum are mostly children and school students.

Previous exhibitions were usually hands off, with the showpieces locked away in cabinets. But today, closed cabinets are rarely seen and visitor participation is encouraged.

A tank greets visitors. Inside there are different specimens like pangolin and coral.

There is a large color plasma TV set, which also attracts a lot of attention. Students vie with one another in front of a wide operation platform to play games related to food chains.

Then there are enlarged models of the mouths of an ant, mosquito, butterfly and leech. One touch of a button makes the mouths open slowly, showing how the animals consume food.

The touch-screen computers are most favored by the youngsters, who enjoy a scientific journey through the multi-media games, which allow them to probe the living and breeding secrets of the animals.

After a catastrophic forest fire, what happens to the burnt, barren land? That is another question answered by the exhibition.

Mullet is a species of fish found only in China. Technology is applied to demonstrate the growth process of the beautiful fish, which gets its name from the magnificent carmine stripe that extends along its body.

Its shape and color change significantly as it ages, and the mullet display is already another big hit." We have applied the most advanced preservation technique -- called biological plastification -- to many of the specimens we have selected for display," said Li Xiangtao, a research fellow with the Beijing Natural History Museum.

By using the new technique, they have replaced the old specimens that were soaked in formal in solution, which produces a repugnant smell.

The open preserved exhibits are dry, odorless, clearer are aesthetically more pleasing.

"Using this technique to preserve specimens has broken new ground in terms of popularization of animal science education," Li said.

One of the biggest benefits is being able to place the animals in their re-created natural habitats.

The specimens fit into the lifelike environmental models that reveal how desert animals like camels and sand grouse adapt to adverse circumstances, how polar bears stand the extreme cold in the Arctic and what a black bear does during hibernation.

One of the most fascinating experiences is looking through the eyes of an owl -- which are in fact a pair of night vision goggles -- to get a sensation of the bird hunting prey at night.

(China Daily June 7, 2004)