Collection Policy for General Use

The Florida Museum has a general policy for all collections found here. This is an extensive document that should answer any questions about use of the Mammalogy Collection. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Specimen Loan Requests

To submit a specimen loan request online (not including destructive sampling or tissue loan requests), please go to our Loan Request Page. If you are a student, your advisor must send an email to the collections manager supporting your request, acknowledging that will take responsibility for all material loans, and affirming that they have proper storage facilities for the material.

Destructive Sampling Policy and Requests

The Mammalogy collection of the Florida Museum of Natural History recognizes the needs of the research community to use specimens in our care. In light of new technology, we must balance the future availability of this valuable biological material with potential yield of information that benefits research and is in the public interest. Therefore, we have established specific guidelines for destructive sampling of museum study specimens. This is in addition to our general loan policy for removal of specimens from the Mammal Collection at Florida Museum of Natural History.

Examples of requests we have received include excising skin samples for various biomolecular investigations, systematic and otherwise; removing tufts of hair from dried specimens, muscle or tissue samples from fluid specimens; and sectioning bones and teeth for aging and stable isotope studies. Our policy is consistent with those of other national museums. You can download our policy and request form below in PDF format. If you wish to sample specimens from the Florida Museum, please fill out the request form and return it to us.

Download the Destructive Sampling Policy.

Tissue Sample Loan Requests

All frozen tissue from mammal specimens are housed in the Florida Museum’s Genetic Resources Repository.  If you wish to request a mammal tissue loan for genetic work, please visit the their Loan Procedures webpage for information on how to proceed.