The Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is the oldest zoological museum in Russia.
The museum was formed in 1832 by separation from the Kunstkamera exposition. Currently, it is a structure within the Zoological Institute.
Since 1896, the museum has occupied a building on Universitetskaya embankment, Neva River, building 1, in the city of St. Petersburg (the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island).
Modern exposition
The museum exhibition occupies most of the second floor of the vast building of the Zoological Institute, as well as the choirs in the first hall. The total number of exhibits on display exceeds 30,000, and the total exhibition area is 6,000 m².
First hall
Insects (more than 10,000 exhibits). Pinnipeds, cetaceans, including one of the world’s largest museum specimens of the blue whale (27 meters long), as well as the first exhibits from the Kunstkamera, bought by Emperor Peter I in 1716.
Second hall
Vertebrates: fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds; about 3,000 species of invertebrates are also represented (commercial sponges, corals, crustaceans, mollusks; fouling organisms, as well as parasitic organisms dangerous to humans and animals are shown).
Third Hall
It is dedicated to mammals, moreover, systematic collections occupy the left side, and 89 biological groups are located in the center and on its right side: from large landscape ones, such as the Ussuri Taiga, to small wall ones. There are unique exhibits of already extinct animals: the Tasmanian wolf (stuffed animal and skeleton) and Steller’s cow (well-preserved skeleton). Of particular value is the collection of mammoths: “Berezovsky mammoth”, mammoth cubs (male “Dima” and female “Masha”), “Mammoth Adams” (the oldest and still the largest mammoth skeleton). At the beginning of the hall there is a diorama “Rookery of fur seals”, and at the end of the hall the exposition ends with three dioramas “A group of lions on vacation”, “Giraffes in the savannah” and “Tian Shan Highlands”.
Address: St. Petersburg, Universitetskaya nab., 1
Opening hours: 11 00 – 19 00, Tuesday is a day off. Sanitary day is the second Wednesday of the month from 01 September to 01 May.
Entrance to the museum stops at 18 00.
The museum’s ticket office is open: 11 00 – 18 00, break 1400 – 1415.
COST OF ENTRANCE TICKETS TO THE MUSEUM:
Adult visitors – 400 rubles.
Schoolchildren, students, cadets, pensioners – 200 rubles.
Children from 3 to 6 years old – 100 rubles.
Cash and bank cards are accepted for payment at the box office.
