News Blog

February 22
11:40 AM /

Museum of Natural History Holds Kick-Off Event for Wine + Food Festival

Photo courtesy of SBMNH

On February 22, the Museum of Natural History held a kick-off event for its big annual fundraiser, the Santa Barbara Wine + Food Festival, which will be held this year on June 30th. The event will once again be at the museum’s idyllic creekside setting, under the redwood and oak trees. It will feature more than 50 premier Central Coast wineries, many with their esteemed winemakers on hand pouring and sharing stories with guests. The event will also feature about 30 fine food purveyors, with many of their talented chefs on hand offering their delicacies to pair with the wines. All net proceeds will go to the museum’s nature and science education programs for adults and children.

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January 28
5:57 PM /

South And Central Coast Residents Can See Rare Lunar Eclipse This Week

Photo courtesy of NASA

South and Central Coast residents are in for a rare astronomical treat this week.

On Wednesday between 5 am and 6 am, there will be a “Super Blue Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse.”

"You're going to see a big moon -- very big moon, very bright moon. A shadow of earth starts to pass over it, so it starts getting darker and darker. And all of sudden, it gets a little reddish. So, it's changing colors from a bright, whitish, almost bluish color to a dark red. Then, it starts lighting up again," said Javier Rivera, a physicist who oversees the astronomy programs at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

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December 27
9:00 AM /

Wild Things Exhibit Features Rare Audubon Lithographs of Mammals

Photo courtesy of SBMNH

Some 30 rare and beautifully hand-colored lithographs of North American mammals by artist and naturalist John James Audubon are on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s John and Peggy Maximus Gallery.

The Wild Things exhibit will be open until Memorial Day 2018.

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November 27
5:30 PM /

Researchers discover skull, ribs of extinct sea cow in Channel Islands National Park

Photo Credit: Juan Carlo, VC Star

Researchers on the Channel Islands recently discovered an extinct sea cow buried deep in a steep ravine on Santa Rosa Island.

Estimated to be 20 to 25 million years old, a skull and partially-intact skeleton were found in July.

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November 08
11:36 PM /

Scientists at The Mammoth Site conduct research on an interesting find

Photo courtesy of The Mammoth Site.

A mammoth skull discovered last year in the Channel Islands, off the California coast has made it to The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. Black Hills FOX's Jon Wilson saw the skull Wednesday and spoke with members of the team seeking to learn more about the extinct animal.

Last year, a small piece of tusk was discovered by a National Park Service Intern in Channel Island National Park off the coast of California. After excavation, that small piece was just part of a find that proved to be better than expected. It turned out that a whole mammoth skull was intact.

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