In August the Natural History Museum celebrated its 112th anniversary with several new acquisitions on display to celebrate the occasion. The most interesting of these were a South American jaguar and an Amur tiger. Both animals had been residents of the Sofia Zoo until their recent deaths when they were donated to the museum. They are currently exhibited in a richly decorated window display on the third floor, and together with the other million and a half stuffed specimens, they make the Natural History Museum a treasury of natural beauties.

The collection covers a wide variety of natural objects. Minerals, mushrooms, higher and lower plants, invertebrate and vertebrate animals make up the richest museum collection on the Balkan Peninsula. The immense number of exhibits has been gathered assiduously over the years. Some of them are part of the international museum exchange, some were donated by hunters or zoos, and others come from the personal collections of the Bulgarian monarchs Boris III and Ferdinand I.

One of the museum's most unique ideas is the zoo, which is composed of a display of live animals arranged along the stairs of the building. Over 60 species can be seen ranging from giant cockroaches to crocodiles and anacondas. Caring for the animals on the stairs of the museum is not an easy task. The pythons eat two hens a week and the cockroaches often escape. Despite this the mini zoo is one of the museum's most memorable displays.

Ferdinand I founded the museum 112 years ago, on August 2, 1889. The monarch had large collections of birds and insects that were hunting trophies or gifts from royal relatives. During the second year of his reign he came up with the idea of displaying them at a public museum. The king bought a two-storey house near his palace and moved his collections there. People reacted so well to the idea that the little museum was soon packed with new acquisitions. Ferdinand I decided to construct a new museum, which was erected on the same spot and became the first building in Bulgaria to be specially designed to house a museum.

The new "Natural History Museum of His Majesty the King of Bulgaria" was opened to the public in 1936. In 1944, during American air raids, a fire and several bombs damaged the building. Fortunately, the most precious exhibits had been moved out only days before and there were no great losses. For the next 30 years the communist government did not encourage visits to the museum and the institution suffered from a lack of resources needed to maintain its collection. This continued until 1974 when it was declared the National Natural History Museum and regained its former popularity.

The museum currently exhibits its treasures on four of the floors of its premises on Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd. A substantial part of its huge collection is stored in basements and curators periodically organize exhibitions.

On the first floor is an impressive collection of 1200 mineral types. They have been gathered from all over the world and include specimens from Australia, Denmark, Canada, and Russia. Some of the more interesting features of this collection are the official seals made of lava from Mount Vesuvius.

Monthly exhibitions are held on the same floor. The latest is of North Korean landscapes made from shells. The second floor houses birds. Over 1,500 species and 30,000 specimens are on display there, explained Prof. Dr. Zlatozar Boev, the museum's scientific secretary and head of the fossil and recent birds department. Some exhibits, such as the Californian condor, Andean condor, the Carolina Parrakeet and the Hermit Ibis are listed in the Red book of endangered species.

Mammals are exhibited on the third floor. Some are in window displays featuring scenes from their lives in the wild. The displays capture the energy and strength of the predators.

An array of monkey skeletons, reflecting the evolution of apes, can also be seen. There have been ideas for similar collections to denote human evolution, but they have not yet been realized and only one human skeleton is displayed. Endangered or extinct species such as the small panda and the monk seal are on display.

The last floor has a wide variety of insects, shells, and worms. The pride of the museum is a portrait of Queen Maria Louisa made of butterflies. Unfortunately it cannot be displayed due to its fragility.