Finally, during the 1960s, large field programs surveying mammals as disease vectors, such as the Smithsonian Venezuelan Project and the African Mammal Project, added more than 100,000 specimens to the USNM mammal collection. Photo by L. K. Gordon. Click on the image to view an enlargement. The National Collections are maintained for posterity as an irreplaceable resource to promote scientific research. More than 400 scientists from around the world visit the Division of Mammals each year to conduct their research in the evolution, systematics, taxonomy , biogeography, ecology, and anatomy of mammals.
Anthropologists make frequent use of the primate collection in their studies of human evolution.
The Division of Mammals staff includes three curators, all of whom regularly use the collections as part of their research programs. The Patuxent Wildlife Research Center of the U.S. Geological Survey is affiliated with the Division and has two curators on its staff. Other mammalogists maintain a regular presence here as researchers in residence and utilize the collections. Mammalogists also manage the Division's Marine Mammal Program . Employees of both the Division of Mammals and Patuxent Wildlife Research Center perform a variety of collections management activities.