Our Australian National Wildlife Collection provides important information on Australia's wildlife heritage through the collection of land vertebrates including birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals.
The Australian National Wildlife Collection is a significant resource on Australia's biodiversity, aiding the study, classification and documentation of Australia's mammals, birds and reptiles.
Our collection is a vital archive for research and conservation of Australia's terrestrial vertebrate biodiversity.
We hold almost 200 000 irreplaceable scientific specimens of wildlife, including skins, skeletons, specimens in spirit, bird egg collections, a wildlife sound library and frozen tissue.
Our archive of wildlife sound recordings is the most comprehensive library of its kind in Australia and is among the largest in the world.
For over 50 years, we have strived to be a modern collection of national scope for Australian land vertebrates including birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals.
Our research informs Australian wildlife conservation and helps to protect biodiversity.
In a search spanning centuries and continents, with clues in museums, diaries of 19th century travellers and DNA, Australia's pink and grey cockatoos have finally found their true identity.
Our research uncovered clues as to how different populations of the crimson rosella are related to each other. This helps us understand the effect of long-term environmental changes on our wildlife, so that we can predict its future.
High up in Tasmania's iconic blue gums, sugar gliders are preying on an unusual species - swift parrots. Specimens from Australia’s natural history collections helped reveal why.
In the early 1980s an egg was found in Australia's Tanami Desert. For decades it was presumed to be the only known egg of the night parrot, the world's most mysterious bird. Then a team of researchers decided to take a look at its DNA.
Genetic research undertaken with the New Mexico State University in the United States has helped scientists better understand how Australian birds evolved.
Our research led to the discovery of a new species of goanna in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.