08 Jan 2017

Zoological Museum of the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

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The Zoological Museum of the University of Chittagong (ZMUC) is a natural history museum that is part of Zoology Department, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. It was established by Zoology Department in 1973 as a teaching collection of zoological specimens and material for dissection. However, the museum has the prospect to be a vibrant natural history museum as it is in the Indo-Burma biodiversity zone, hosting a significant number of specimens from this area. The primary task of the Zoological Museum of the University of Chittagong is to collect and manage zoological specimens for scientific and study purposes. However, the museum is planning to be a more research-based museum the activities of which will include:

conducting regular zoological expeditions;
guiding local and international postgraduate students for systematic and phylogenetic research;
collaborating with national and international institutions to exchange research ideas and resources;
digitalising preserved specimens, photos, videos, sounds etc.; and
publishing scientific issues and digitalizing information of zoological species of Bangladesh (“Bangladesh Faunas’ Data Bank”) for online dissemination.

Permanent Collections: The ZMUC holds a rich collection of 5,000 preserved samples (from home and abroad) from 687 different animal species, of which at least 100 are rare. Moreover, an insect section holding reference collections of representative insects of all groups has been established. The museum holds a significant amount of type specimens of some newly-discovered species of animals from Bangladesh (e.g. amphibians and protistans).