Granted, I haven;t been to Cabela’s yet so I don’t really have an opinion on the matter, but the talk about the displays of animals got me thinking about displays that I have seen.

As a kid, I often frequented the Fairbanks Museum in Vermont with my family (http://www.fairbanksmuseum.org). One of the most impressive parts of the small museum are the stuffed animals on display on the first floor. The polar bear in particular was always impressive to me because of its massive size as it is displayed on its hind legs. On the plaques that shared general information about the animals, such as habitat and diet, the plaques also displayed information about who donated the animal. All of the preserved specimens in the displays were donated by some hunter who had killed the animal and then later donated its taxidermy. The talk of Cabelas and the plaques that display the names of the hunters who shot the animals reminded me of this. Although education is clearly not the main focus of Cabelas, I was wondering if for many patrons of the store, this was the closest thing that they are able to get to that kind of education, being able to see animals that they would never be able to see in the wild or wouldn’t have the time to visit a museum. Possibly its a way of killing two birds with one stone: picking up hunting supplies and seeing a variety of different animals.