Collections

Basic information about the Lower Vertebrate collections, Ornithology collections, Mammalogy collections, Archaeozoology collections and Domestic Dog Breeds collections.

Vertebrate collections, overview

A considerable part of the collection are animals found dead by people or items from hunters, game wardens, biologists working on projects, government authorities (police, customs, etc).
Those collections focus quite naturally mainly on animals from the local area.
The large sample of endemic animals (skulls of 350 badgers, 90 ibex, 900 roe deer etc.) are mainly the result of scientific projects and were not randomly collected.

Current projects that contribute to the extension of our collection are:
  • Fish fauna of Swiss Lakes
  • Frogs of Borneo
  • cynological collection

Here are a few numbers to give you an impression of the approx. size of the Vertebrate collections:
  • Mounted animals: 8,000
  • Skins and Furs: 11,000
  • Skulls: 15,000
  • Skeletons: 3,000;
  • Fluid Specimens: 9,000

More than 98% of all specimens are registered in our database.

In August 2009 52‘735 objects have been computerized.
By systematic order:
Agnatha 4 species 30 specimens
Chondrichthyes 42 species 93 specimens
Osteichthyes 616 species 2267 specimens
Amphibia 363 species 2960 specimens
Reptilia 619 species 2817 specimens
Aves 2323 species 25809 specimens
Mammalia 799 species 18687 specimens



Vertebrate Collections at the Natural History Museum Bern -  a synopsis

By geographic order:

  • Europe (without Switzerland)    6404 specimens
  • Switzerland only    20827 specimens
  • Asia    5622 specimens
  • Africa    3977 specimens
  • North America    1519 specimens
  • South America (without Brasil)    1677 specimens
  • Brazil only    5198 specimens
  • Australia and Pacific, Oceania    665 specimens
  • Unknow    6581 specimens
  • Antarctica    80 specimens
  • Atlantic Ocean    103 specimens
  • Indian Ocean    26 specimens

The use of Specimens in Molecular Based Studies
The NMBE (official abbreviation for science purposes) welcomes the opportunity to make its collections available for scientific study. To ensure that the needs of both contemporary and future users can be met the following guidelines have been drawn up.

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