UCLA Biologist Curates Feline Exhibit

Starting Sunday and continuing through September it will be reigning cats, and more cats, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

“Cats! Wild to Mild,” a new exhibit developed by UCLA biologist and Calabasas resident Blaire Van Valkenburgh, will debut this weekend, offering Los Angeles residents the most comprehensive look at felines ever to be displayed in a museum, officials said.

“Everybody has a cat. Our society is absolutely fascinated with cats,” said Bob Lavenberg, acting deputy director for research and collections at the museum. “To have the story of cats told so well is really a treat for the city.”

On Friday, as Van Valkenburgh led a guided tour, workers mounted displays and added finishing touches to the exhibit, which examines not only feline science but also mythology associated with the animals and information about conservation and responsible pet care.

“It’s been a lot of work, but it was mostly a labor of love,” said Van Valkenburgh, who was hired as principal curator two years ago and has split her time between UCLA and the museum ever since.

“Cats!” includes more than 25 taxidermic species set in dioramas and a variety of interactive and written displays that were designed for young and old visitors alike. A snarling jaguar greets visitors at the entrance; farther down, a mountain lion stands poised above a suburban landscape and a mummified Egyptian cat rests in a glass case. All of the animals used in the exhibit died of natural causes and were donated, museum officials said.

“I love this one,” Van Valkenburgh said, pausing to stroke an enormous red cat tongue created for the exhibit. “You see these fleshy hooks, they’re scrapers. They enable cats to scrape meat off the bones,” she said.

Van Valkenburgh and her husband, Robert Wayne, also a UCLA biologist, have a cat named Ki Paka, Swahili for “little cat.” Wayne, as it turns out, is an expert on dogs.

“Many of the 36 species of cats are endangered or vulnerable,” Van Valkenburgh said, as the tour moved into the part of the exhibit devoted to conservation. “We try to give people things that they can do, organizations they can join or ways that they can help, so they don’t just think it’s a hopeless cause.

“That’s one of the big messages I hope people will take home with them.”