Vertebrate Collections

• Egg collections

The vertebrate collections presently comprise some 75 000 specimens of stuffed animals, skins, skeletons, and liquid specimens. Fishes, amphibians, and reptiles are usually kept in liquids, either alcohol or formalin. In addition the museum has a large bird egg collection. The collection database is mostly computerized for more easy availability. The collections are primarily used for research purposes, but the museum also lends them for exhibitions and for advertisements.

In the 1800s specimens were collected actively, purchased from dealers, or received as gifts or through exchange. Many Finns worked under the Russian government in far-away countries and collected specimens, later donated to the museum. When Hampus Furuhjelm was governor of Alaska (then part of the Russian empire like Finland) he acquired a skeleton of the extinct Steller's Sea Cow. The skeleton came to the museum in 1861 and is the gem of the collections, since there are only a few such specimens in the whole world. Nowadays the museum gets new samples from the public, representing animals found dead in nature. Scientists donate material acquied in the process of their research work, and the Korkeasaari Zoo has been a loyal donator already 100 years.