Natural Environment
The Natural Environment team cares for and develops Te Papa’s natural history collections which represent the animals and plants of New Zealand and its adjacent seas, and related material from further afield. The ccollections are used for research, teaching, museum exhibitions and public education programmes.
This study of excavated animal remains determines aspects of how people once lived. Our collections focus mainly on fish bones from the Pacific region.
Te Papa has extensive collections of birds from the New Zealand region, including many specimens of extinct birds and a large collection of oceanic birds.
Te Papa has the largest Crustacea Collection in the country. It includes crabs, lobsters, prawns, krill, sea lice, water fleas, and others.
The Fishes Collection contains around 175,000 specimens comprising 1700 species. It’s the world’s largest collection from the New Zealand region.
This collection of insects, spiders, centipedes, millipedes and tardigrades focuses mainly on New Zealand.
This collection contains both native and introduced reptiles, amphibians, and land mammals. It includes the skeleton of the legendary racehorse Phar Lap.
Te Papa’s collection of whales, dolphins, porpoises, and seals includes specimens from Antarctica.
Te Papa's collection includes creatures as small as snails and slugs, and as large as octopuses and giant squids.
Our collection of land-based plants and marine algae covers native and introduced species from New Zealand, as well as specimens from overseas.
Increasingly, more work is being done that utilizes genetic markers to distinguish species and access population structures among and between endangered or commercially important plants and animals.