Studies of natural history museums typically prioritise specimens because of their organic relation to the animals represented. Imitating nature examines what occurs when exhibitions rely instead on non-remnant representations, analysing objects such as death masks, re-creation taxidermy, glass models and virtual tours. It investigates how artificial animals structure contemporary understandings of non-human life within environmental crisis discourse. Drawing on literary analysis, museum studies and the environmental humanities, it considers displays at the Museum für Naturkunde, Harvard Natural History Museum, the Creation Museum, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and other institutions. The book interrogates the relationship between exhibition media and narrative to reveal how non-specimen representations mediate extinction, speculate on past ecologies and construct alternative forms of museum nature. It provides a critical account of how these objects shape knowledge-making within twenty-first-century museum practice.