The Mammalogy collection consists of 98,000 research specimens of marine and terrestrial mammals including whole specimens, skulls, skeletons, skins, tanned pelts, fluid-preserved specimens and frozen tissue samples. Our holdings are world-wide in scope and represent all orders and families of mammals. They include the second largest assemblage of marine mammal specimens in the world. Other significant holdings include large collections of bats from all over the world and a large series of African artiodactyls, one-third of which are complete skeletons. For local and regional southern California coverage our mammal collections are among the best anywhere.

Museum curators, collections staff, research associates, and visiting researchers from around the world use our mammal collections to study the natural history and evolution of mammals, including the origin and development of mammals and their place in the natural world and to evaluate human impacts on mammals, especially through our marine mammal stranding program. The stranding program documents the causes of marine mammal deaths and the changes in marine mammal populations in the waters off southern California.

Mammals are on display in the Museum in three different mammal halls on the first and second floors, in the Discovery Center, and in the Director’s gallery.