photo by: Courtesy: University of Kansas/Jocelyn Colella

Bats are pictured as part of the mammal specimens collections housed by the University of Kansas.

The University of Kansas has received a federal grant to help protect its world-renowned collection of mammal research.

A team of researchers, students and employees at KU’s Biodiversity Institute is in the process of moving nearly 280,000 mammal specimens — think everything from bats to rats to mammals of other shapes and sizes — into steel cases as part of an effort to ensure the collection is adequately protected from bugs and other pests.

KU received a $646,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to replace its old wooden cabinets and drawers that house the mammal species. KU called those wooden cabinets “woefully inadequate” in keeping out bugs and protecting the specimens from other damage.

KU’s Biodiversity Institute has the second largest mammal-based collection of specimens in all the Americas. The collection has been developed over more than a century, with some of the specimens dating back to 1866. KU hadn’t updated its storage for the specimens since the 1960s, KU said in a press release.

photo by: Courtesy: University of Kansas/Joceyln Colella

A $640,000 federal grant has been used to purchase new cabinets to better protect the University of Kansas’ sizable mammal collection, which previously was housed in a way that made it susceptible to bugs and other pests.

As part of the move, KU researchers and students are digitizing data about the specimens as they are transferred to the new cabinets. Due to its size and age, the KU collection plays some vital roles in research, Jocelyn Colella, curator of mammals at the Biodiversity Institute and KU assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said via a press release.

“It’s easy to observe things as they are right now, but it’s hard to measure change without physical documentation of the past,” Colella said. “Scientifically, that’s one of the best things that we get from collections — an objective means of measuring change over time. And as change accelerates, we’re able to look at how rates have changed, which allows us to make informed predictions and decisions moving forward.”

By properly preserving the specimens, that allows researchers to genetically analyze the specimens, which can be useful in understanding disease outbreaks, tracking the spread of invasive species and other topics, Colella said.

“Until recently, no one had really looked to museums for public health research,” Colella said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize there’s this whole back end to museums that’s involved in really cutting-edge research. That aspect of our work is less appreciated by the public because they don’t see it.”