Natural History Collection

A land of giant, flightless creatures, New Zealand's natural environment is uniquely ancient.  Auckland Museum´s natural history galleries tell the story of this environment, on land and in the oceans. 

The Museum protects and cares for approximately 1.5 million natural history specimens in collections that have been built over 150 years.  The focus of the collections is northern New Zealand, but they also contain material from the rest of the country, the South West Pacific and other parts of the world.

Visit the Museum’s Natural History Information Centre on the first floor.  Here you have the opportunity to find out more about our exhibits, our natural history collections and New Zealand’s unique natural environment.

What We Do

Read About The Collection:

BOTANY

The Herbarium provides the basic means by which the Museums Botany Collections team can carry out the collection and preservation of botanical materials. It also provides educational services (through public enquiries, individual and group visits, outreach programmes, and the display of plant material), and research and publication on various aspects of the New Zealand flora.

ENTOMOLOGY

Auckland Museum's insect collection commenced soon after the Museum was founded in 1852. It contains comprehensive collections of most insect types as well as other terrestrial and freshwater invertebrates (worms, spiders and their relatives, millipedes and centipedes, some isopods and amphipods).

LAND VERTEBRATES

Auckland Museums outstanding land vertebrates collection comprises 14,000 bird specimens, 3,000 amphibians and reptiles and 1,500 land mammals. These specimens are primarily from northern New Zealand, but there is also a significant amount of material from elsewhere.

MARINE

Auckland Museum Marine Collection consists of a wide range of specimens from New Zealand coastal and oceanic waters, including a large number of sea-shore and inter-tidal species collected from beaches, foreshores and estuaries. It also contains land slugs and snails.