Eagle-eyed experts assess museum bird collection in Leeds

“If you were man in Leeds showing off how wealthy and interested in science you were, then you would commission people to send you animals from around the world,” said Clare Brown, of Leeds Museums and Galleries.

The biggest avian species in the Discovery Centre is the skeletal remains of a moa.

Standing as tall as 12ft (3.6m), the wingless birds were once found across New Zealand but were hunted to extinction about 700 years ago.

Ms Brown, a curator of natural sciences, said: “I spend a lot of my time fighting clothes moths.

“We want to make sure that anything that likes eating museum specimens is not involved in museum specimens.”

Staff took measurements of its albatross during the work, with the specimen carrying a wingspan of 9.8ft (3m) despite only being a juvenile.

The albatross has the longest wingspan of any bird alive today.