Narrator: This is an 8½-foot-long skull of a Rice's whale.
And it's just one part of the entire whale skeleton
housed in the Smithsonian's collection.
This is the first left rib.
And in here,
we have the scapula from this animal,
which is the shoulder blade.
Narrator: But none of these bones are on display.
Instead, they're stashed in a warehouse
large enough to fit a 747
alongside millions of other bones.
So, why is this all hidden away?
And what actually happens behind the scenes?
To see the work in action, we met up with John.
So, right now we have over 18,000 specimens.
Narrator: John's specialty is mammals,
specifically marine mammals at the Smithsonian.
These are fin whales, and then we have humpbacks.
Narrator: So he knows this collection inside and out.
Over here on this side,
we have the vertebral column of the blue whale
that went to the 1904 World's Fair.
So this animal was 80 feet long.
Narrator: The Smithsonian collected most of its large whales
from whaling stations in the 1800s and early 1900s.
But today, it works with research and government agencies
to preserve specimens that died from accidental causes,
like eating plastics, getting entangled in fishing gear,
or being struck by ships.
Take this Rice's whale skull.
This one had been entangled in fishing gear,
and you can see there's rope scars here
where the rope dug into its palate,
and this caused the animal to starve
and become emaciated and beach.
Narrator: This species was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico,
and it's critically endangered.
There's only 30 or fewer left,
and I fear it's going to go extinct.
Narrator: The whales are so rare,
the museum was only able to find
a full adult specimen to study in 2019.
It was found beached in the Everglades,
and the original plan was to take some samples
and then throw the carcass back to the ocean.
But John lobbied hard
to preserve every single bone of the whale
and add it to the Smithsonian's collection,
despite the effort and cost.
John: I got really hyper about it.
I thought, there's just no way they could do that,
because this is an extremely rare whale.
So I was right on top of NOAA,
begging, pleading, whining, you name it.
Narrator: Recovering and preserving
the entire specimen took nearly a year.
The Smithsonian had to first move it
to Fort De Soto Park to decompose
in this pit of sand and ammonia.
That took six months.
Then onwards to the Bonehenge Whale Center
in Beaufort, North Carolina, to compost.
That was another five months.
And then it finally arrived
at the Smithsonian Support Center in Maryland,
where it started its last stage of cleaning,
maceration.
For months, water gradually dissolved
the soft tissues and removed any grease.
Daniella: This tank is currently full of vertebrae,
which is basically like your spine.
Narrator: These whale bones have been out here
for about five months,
and only now are they ready for their final clean.
Daniella: It's mostly done over the summer months,
with the heat and humidity and good bacteria cultures.
Periodically, we'll just top up the water
and do water changes. Sometimes 50%, sometimes more.
Narrator: A whole whale can take
over a year to be fully cleaned
before going through an ammonia soak
to strip it of any lingering oils.
So preparators found a way to speed things up
for smaller specimens.
Those are housed next door,
in the second warehouse dedicated to marine animals.
John: OK, guys, you are being invaded by the video crew.
Narrator: Here, you'll find the skulls of beaked whales,
narwhal tusks,
and dolphin heads.
Would you like to see something really cool?
Producer: Yeah. John: OK.
Because I want to show you right now
my favorite specimen.
Marine mammals are weird to start off with,
and this might be the weirdest one.
So, this is the skull
of the pygmy sperm whale.
This is the left nostril.
This here is the right nostril.
I love this.
It's just so weird looking.
Narrator: To get these guys ready for museum preservation,
the staff get some helping hands, or mouths,
thanks to the Smithsonian's army of flesh-eating beetles.
Sorry about the spiders. They are in here too.
Narrator: The museum has thousands of dermestid beetles,
which it releases into temperature-controlled chambers
to munch on tissues and muscles.
They're not harmful to humans.
They're helpful.
They can get in very small nooks and crannies
that we otherwise can't reach easily.
They're kind of our unsung heroes.
Narrator: If you look closely,
you'll see cheesecloth between the bins,
so the bugs can easily migrate
from one specimen to another,
kind of like a highway.
Daniella: We have a flyer.
If it gets warm enough, they can develop wings
and fly around, like this little guy here.
Narrator: The beetles might get a few coworkers
if the animals are even larger.
These are compost bins, where tissues are consumed
by beetles, worms, cockroaches,
and other naturally occurring pests.
Inger: Here's the top of his head.
His eyes were back here.
And then here's his jaw.
Narrator: It can take anywhere
from a few weeks to a month
for the beetles to do their job,
faster if they're hungry
and even faster if the animals are small.
When the bugs move on to their next meal,
it's a sign that these bones are ready to go.
Daniella: If they do a good job,
sometimes we'll just kind of refer to one
and just say, "Good job," or, like, "Good job, team."
Just little running joke.
Teresa: Good job. Good job. Good job.
So, thanks, guys, for all of your good work.
Narrator: Only after every ligament is nibbled away
and every drop of grease stripped with ammonia
can these bones dry off and finally join the collection.
But even then, this isn't for the public.
This is for science.
This is a research team in action.
Narrator: This group from the Calvert Marine Museum
is primarily interested
in the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin
and how its skull has changed over time.
The key here is looking at specimen after specimen.
It's taken the Smithsonian over 150 years
to build up its collection
of more than 2,000 bottlenose dolphins.
And as for our Rice's whale,
it took nearly three years
for the team to mount the skull,
thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
John: You caught us right in the middle of
sort of the final processing
of getting this into the collection.
Narrator: Now that the entire specimen
is properly preserved,
researchers can finally learn
more about this Rice's whale
and what happened in its life.
Currently, pathologists are working
to find the cause of these fractures and bruises.
This is the first left rib,
and what you can see here is that
it was cracked pretty badly,
and now it's rehealing.
And in here we have the scapula.
So, what we have here is this V-shaped crack
and some bruising.
Narrator: They plan to do CT scans
to look at the bone at a microscopic level,
and their findings will help the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration create guidelines
for preventing more harm to the species.
John: This is America's whale,
and it is about to go away,
and I think Americans should realize that.
We have a grand, beautiful whale
that is only living in American waters,
and it's going extinct.
And we should be raising the alarm bells about that.
We should be saying, "Hey, how do we save this?"
Narrator: But saving the Rice's whale
can only come from studying specimen after specimen,
which is why the Smithsonian's collection is so necessary.
And what happens to the Rice's whale
might also affect the lives
of all the other living creatures in its orbit.
John: We are documenting the biodiversity of the planet,
and this is hugely important.
It's a top predator in its system.
You know, who knows if this animal disappears
what happens to the ecosystem?