The upper basement contains five dioramas of Asian animals threatened with extinction: snow leopards, orangutans, giant pandas, Indian rhinoceroses, and tigers.

[3][4] [5] The museum's largest exhibit draws on the four million items to explore the biological and psychological facets of life.

Visitors are invited to use sight, smell and sound to discover the world's tremendous biodiversity and its greater implications in human existence.

Films, tactile and audio installations attempt to not only present scientific answers to these basic questions, but illustrate philosophy into the metaphysics of studying life.

Avian mating displays show the advantages and disadvantages of this system: the decorated male bird may attract predators as well as an appreciative female and his elaborate plumage may make it hard to fly.

Over in the corner, a life-sized blue whale head and an oversized sea turtle represent r/K selection theory.

A mirrored room metaphorically takes the visitor into an infinity and asks if vision requires an infinite amount of brain activity.

The Albert Heim Foundation for the promotion of cynological research is based at the museum, and possesses the world's largest collection of canine skulls.