Te Hikoi museum started fundraising last week to bring the only colossal squid in the world on display to Southland — and manager Karyn Owen hopes it will attract many people as it is "cool and gross".
Ms Owen said the colossal squid exhibition has been at Te Papa for several years, and would be now touring around the country.
She thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring it to the museum.
"We try to get at least one touring exhibition each year and we thought this is just something we thought would appeal because a lot of Southland students haven't had a natural history museum for a while.
"It’s really cool and gross!”
"And we've heard that from this exhibition elsewhere the local fishermen are really interested into it too, so we think it's a perfect fit for Riverton."
The deep-sea creature was so rarely seen that only eight adult colossal squids have so far been scientifically reported, she said.
"It is the only squid with hooks on its arms, and has the largest eye of any living being.
"There have been very few ever caught, and because of that they can only estimate their likely size around 10m in length — which is based on the size of the beaks which can be found inside sperm whales — with whom we assume they fight."
Since the exhibition will be in Oamaru during the summer, Te Hikoi museum would just need $1610 to make this happen.
Ms Owen was impressed that in one week they had already raised $1190.
"If we get more than what we need, then the rest will go towards promoting the exhibition or bringing other elements into it as well.
"We will be adding some of our own specimens and elements to the exhibition to give it more of a local feel."
Te Hikoi aims to host the exhibition from February 20 for 10 weeks.
Te Papa staff would transport it, and set it up, she said.
"There is going to be some tricky work from their team to get it in the building but the Te Papa touring team and myself are confident we can make it work”.
Te Papa’s Senior Touring Exhibition Manager Pat Stodart said they were really excited for the opportunity to bring the colossal squid exhibition close to its natural habitat in the sub-Antarctic waters.
"It will give the people of Southland a chance to see all the features of this amazing creature that lives in the ocean on their doorstep.”
Anyone keen to help raise funds can find out more on www.tehikoi.co.nz/squid
