Bat Collection Improvement

The bat collection at the AMNH (>60,000 specimens) constitutes one of the largest and most important components of the mammal collection. Worldwide in geographic coverage, it contains specimens of many rare or extinct species and populations and it has been the basis for many historically important faunal and biogeographic studies, systematic revisions, and phylogenetic analyses. Thanks to the efforts of the late Dr. Karl Koopman, taxonomic identifications and geographic data associated with this collection have been well maintained. It is the foremost collection of its kind, and attracts a steady stream researchers eager to have much of the world's bat diversity at their fingertips.

Until recently, the entire dry collection (skins, skulls, skeletons: approximately 35,000 specimens) was housed in substandard conditions. Skins lay in acid-rich trays, skeletons were housed in tiny glass vials, and all were stored in old cabinets that did not seal properly. Such conditions may have been acceptable a hundred years ago, but they have now been found to be woefully inadequate for long-term maintenance of the collection. Improvements were clearly overdue.

With support from the National Science Foundation (DEB 9986849), we completed a project to rehouse and update the curation of the dry bat collection. New collection spaces were rennovated and new custom-built steel cabinetry was installed to hold the collection. All of the old skull vials and skeleton boxes were replaced with new archival-quality vials and boxes, and all paper trays (which hold skins) were replaced with new archival trays. Tray changeover also involved cleaning of specimens (mostly the skins) with a HEPA vacuum.

Data associated with every specimen was checked against the entries in our electronic database, and the electronic data were updated as necessary. Because data in the database were originally entered directly from catalog ledgers and had not previously been checked against the specimens, we found hundreds of errors and cases of taxonomic name changes that we were able to correct as part of this process. The corrected data are available online along with the rest of the collection database and can be accessed here.

The bat collection of the American Museum of Natural History is now better than ever, and is ready for another 100 years of active research. For more information about coming to work with this collection or to request a loan, please follow this link.