As a part of the only Pennsylvania museum with a mammal collection that has remained active since before 1900, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Section of Mammals is a major repository for mammals collected in Pennsylvania.
For more than 100 years, section staff have been involved in the study of mammals of the commonwealth and have actively participated in joint projects with the Pennsylvania Game Commission as well as universities and colleges around the state.
Perhaps the largest single effort was the Survey of Pennsylvania Mammals, Pittman Robertson Project 20-R. It was conducted under the Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 and supervised jointly by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. From 1947 to 1951, the staff of the Section of Mammals obtained practical management information about the mammals of Pennsylvania for this project.
Areas of emphasis included life history, ecology, species range, abundance, habitat preference, effects of land use on populations, and economic importance of the mammals occurring here. The information and specimens obtained during that project have been the basis of many studies and increase understanding of changes that have taken place during the past 50 years.
Visit Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Hall of North American Wildlife to learn more.
