Dresden Zoological Museum

The Dresden Zoological Museum, opened in 1728, is located in a quiet scenic area on the outskirts of Dresden and bordered by protected coniferous forests. It is part of the State Natural Science Collection of Dresden and is one of the largest and oldest natural history museums in Europe.

The natural-historical collection of the museum dates back to the 16th century, when the first interesting finds from nature were collected in the Kunstkamera by a local elector. The oldest exhibits of the collection date back to 1587.

The museum includes 6 departments: vertebrate animals, insects, invertebrates, preparation, molecular genetic laboratory and library, which is one of the largest zoological specialized libraries in Germany and Europe.

The collection contains more than 6 million zoological preparations, including vertebrate animals, which are represented by more than 231,000 objects, insects, of which alone beetles number about 2.5 million specimens and 80,000 species.