Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Irkutsk State University

About museum

Beginning in 1920, the Department of Vertebrate Zoology was established at the Institute of Geography of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1936 a Museum of Vertebrate Zoology was organized on its basis. The museum's holdings were formed from the collections of zoologists who worked in the department, as well as specimens collected in the 19th century. From the 1940s, the museum's collections were supplemented with expedition materials gathered by the department's faculty, postgraduate students, and students, as well as by scientists from Siberian research institutions. In 1980 the museum was granted official status. Currently the museum's scientific collection consists of 14,343 cataloged items and is actively used by Russian and foreign zoologists. In addition, the museum exhibits mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, and fish from Russia and around the world. The scientific auxiliary collection contains more than 40,000 records of bird observations in Eastern Siberia.