Zoological museums (зоологічні музеї; zoolohichni muzei). Institutions in which animal collections are assembled for scientific, educational, and cultural purposes, for exhibition and research. The oldest Ukrainian zoological museum (est 1919) is in Kyiv, under the auspices of the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Other museums have been established at Lviv University, Odesa University, Kharkiv University, Dnipropetrovsk University, and Chernivtsi University. Zoological museums carry out extensive research on topics such as taxonomic descriptions of fauna, zoogeography, the history of the animal world, and comparative anatomy. Expeditions are organized to enrich current knowledge of zoology. The staff is often involved in consultations on medical, agricultural, forestry, or hunting problems concerning various specimens of the local fauna.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]