The municipality of Tlajomulco has decided to take Mexico’s natural history out of the museum and on to the streets.
Or rather, one street. Avenida Adolf Horn, a long, wide urban boulevard named after a beloved U.S. expat leader stretching all the way to Tlaquepaque, will see five kilometers of its center divider widened, landscaped and dotted with close to 40 fiber glass to-scale representations of various fauna of the region both bygone (mammoth, saber-toothed tiger, tyrannosaurus rex) and extanct (manatee, sperm whale, jaguar).
Accompanying the figures will be square, black obelisks complete with information regarding the species’ appearance, history, probable habits and geographical dispersion.
The aim of the project, dubbed “Paseo de la Fauna Mexicana” and budgeted by the Tlajomulco City Council at three million pesos, is to nurture interest and curiosity in the young and old about the natural world. The newly-widened center strip will include space for joggers and places to sit, relax and contemplate nature’s past masterpieces.