Conserving, Reuniting, and Digitizing Elephant and Bovid Collections
Daniel Kim/© AMNH
A major collections stewardship project to preserve, rehouse, and reunite two of the Museum’s significant zoological collections, the African and Asian elephant specimens and the African bovid skeletal collection, required staff from the Museum’s Science Conservation Team and Mammalogy Department to be creative in figuring out how to digitize of some of its biggest specimens.
Much of the Museum’s collection of elephants and bovids—split-hoofed ruminant mammals including cattle, buffalo, antelopes, sheep, and goats—were assembled during early 20th-century expeditions. The African bovid collection includes more than 3,500 specimens representing more than 70 species, while the Museum’s elephant collection includes approximately 80 specimens.
These specimens are invaluable resources for research in conservation biology, evolution, and comparative anatomy. As collection of large mammals from the wild has largely ceased, these historic specimens have become increasingly important for scientific study.
“Our elephant and bovid collections are among the largest and most significant in the world, providing an invaluable resource for scientific research,” says Neil Duncan, co-director of the project and collection manager in the Department of Mammalogy. “By conserving these specimens and expanding digital access to them, we are safeguarding this remarkable collection while making it more accessible than ever before.”
Through a multi-year initiative that began in 2024 with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Museum staff are conserving fragile elephant skulls, creating custom archival mounts and storage enclosures, relocating specimens to climate-controlled collections storage, and reuniting collection components that are currently housed in separate locations.
The Museum is also digitizing elephant skulls through 3D scanning, which will expand access to these unique materials for researchers and educators worldwide. Scanning a specimen of that size—skulls measure up to 46 inches from back to front and 34 inches across, and the heaviest can weigh up to 120 pounds—presented some unique challenges for the team.
“Scanning specimens this large and complex — with deep voids and irregular surfaces —challenged our team to produce research-quality data that does not overwhelm the capabilities of our hardware and storage,” says Julia Sybalsky, director of the project and a conservator in the Museum’s Department of Science Conservation.
Over the course of this project, the team will create about 160 datasets, some over 100 GB — many terabytes in total. The scans will be available through MorphoSource, a cross-institutional repository accessible to researchers anywhere.
The scans are also used to fabricate customized foam cradles that match the contours of each skull, investing in long-term care of these extraordinary specimens.
“The scans support both research access and physical collection care here at the Museum,” Sybalsky says, ensuring the collections remain a vital resource for scientific discovery and education for years to come.