SEQUIM — Staff and volunteers at the Dungeness River Audubon Center are cleaning house after beetles were discovered in its taxidermy animal collection.
Powell Jones, the center’s executive director, said Thursday that two drugstore beetles were discovered on two birds, triggering a weeklong process to remove and freeze each of the 700-plus mounts in the center.
“In here, it could be a huge problem for the collection,” Jones said.
Center board member Darcy McNamara and Terri Tyler, both of Sequim, discovered one of the beetles crawling along the table while they drew a picture of the center’s pygmy owl.
“Oh, that’s not good,” McNamara said, and met with volunteer instructor Bob Boekelheide, who looked at the beetle under a microscope. After a staff meeting, center representatives met with an entomologist and reached out to staffers with the Burke Museum in Seattle.
“I like to think of it as ‘art saves science,’ ” McNamara said. “It’s nice when the two worlds get to collide.”
Jones said staffers at the Burke Museum told him the beetles could ruin the collection, and that drugstore beetles can be pesticide-resistant and chemicals may not reach the beetles.
“The only way to be sure the beetles aren’t in the collection is to freeze the exhibits for 48 hours at 18 degrees (Fahrenheit) or less,” Jones said.
Center staff are freezing exhibits in two sessions for 48 hours; the first session was on Thursday and the second will be on Monday.
The center is closed since most exhibits are temporarily not displayed, and is expected to re-open the first week of February. Those with wildlife identification questions, general inquiries and/or to make a donation, can contact the center at 360-681-4076 or rivercenter@olympus.net.
Packing up the center’s collection began Wednesday, with everything going either into plastic bags and/or tubs wrapped in plastic to keep moisture out.
That includes a bear, cougar, penguin and many other birds.
“Part of the issue is nothing can touch. It’s like packing china,” Jones said.
“The geese with wings open are not going to be easy.”
Birds — specifically, falcons, hawks and owls — found with the beetles were sent last week to the Olympic Game Farm, Jones said, where staff there stored the birds in a walk-in freezer at no charge.
For the remainder of the collection, staff rented a freezer truck to cut down on transportation time and any possibility of damaging an animal.
The center and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe plan to split the costs of an estimated $3,000 to $3,500 for the truck and any other expenditures, Jones said.
This is the first time the center has experienced anything like this, he said.
“It’ll be great for the exhibits to be set to zero,” Jones said. “When we come out of this, we’ll have developed a process for donated pieces to be frozen for 48 hours before coming into the building.”
Center staff plan to purchase a freezer in the near future.
While the exhibits are freezing, staff and volunteers plan to clean the facility and do some remediation, Jones said.
“As much as it is a stressor, it’s an opportunity to reset,” he said.
For more information on the Dungeness River Audubon Center, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road, visit dungenessrivercenter.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
