Quagga is a real symbol and pride of our Museum. It had inhabited Southern Africa until it was eradicated by humans. The last wild quagga was shot in 1878, and the last altogether died in the Amsterdam Zoo in 1883.

The stuffed quagga in our Zoological Museum is one of only nine in the world – and the only in Russia. Quagga Breeding Project, the initiative to revive this species, has been in action since 1987.

Ernst Haeckel was inspired by the sponges' fantastical shapes to create his album «Art Forms in Nature».

Russian zoologist Pyotr Vasilkovsky wrote about these sponges, «Looking at them you start thinking that these lacelike weavings are not parts of living beings but some fine jewelry made for marine princesses… Their bodies show such amazing correctness of picture as if they were made by master craftsmen».

The bison was presented to the Museum by Emperor Nicholas II in 1897. The Emperor didn’t personally visit Kazan but knew much about the city and the University.

Kazani zoologists were interested in this rare animal.

Professor Rudolf Burukovsky, a KFU alumnus, wrote about seashells, «…their shape is as if the playful spirit of God, inspired by His almightiness, created them for His own amusement. Rose and plump like girl’s lips, purple, amber, nacre, white, black, patchy… finely intricate like Maeve’s powder box… spiky, roundish, kidney-shaped, eye-shaped, arrow-shaped, lip-shaped, helmet-shaped, shaped-like-nothing-else, they are transparent or colorful…»