Te Papa’s marine mammals collection

Large numbers of whales are stranded every year on New Zealand’s coasts. The Department of Conservation is responsible for recording and keeping track of all these whales. Find out more on DoC's website.

Te Papa houses one of the largest collections of whale and other marine mammal skeletons in the world. Sir James Hector, who started the Colonial Museum in 1865, collected its first specimen, a bottlenose dolphin in 1872 from Porirua Harbour.

The Museum has concentrated on collecting mainly rare and unusual kinds of whales that strand on our shores, especially the ‘beaked’ whales (family Ziphiidae) and the little-known pygmy right whale (Caperea marginata). We also have good collections of dolphin and seal skeletons, many unique to New Zealand waters.