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 The collecting of mammals began in the middle of the XIX century. Among its pioneers we can find A. V. Frantzius and W. Gabb, also C. Hoffmann, O. Salvin and other, including the national A. Alfaro and J. C. Zeledón.
The first groups were sent to United States or Europe. Many of the several samples collected during those early years gave room for new descriptions of rodents, bats and other groups. The creation on the National Museum was necessary in order to have a place to storage the samples on national ground.
Since its creation in the nineties in the XX century, the National Museum collection has been through ups and downs because of economic and social factors. Even in previous decades, the collection was practically abandoned. In the middle of the nineties, people started destining founds to make it work again. When Bernal Rodríguez was in charge, a lot of unknown yet well kept skins were recovered. The original catalog went missing, but the collecting went on.
The mammal collection currently counts with 1.735 specimens. It consists in skins and skulls, single skins and skulls without skin. There are 154 species of national mammals, which represent 65% of the whole Costa Rican mammal fauna.
The best represented orders are the bats (Chiroptera), with 977 specimens, which are the 58% of the collection. There are 94 species of these mammals, an 86% of species of the country, 109 in total, which depend on the criteria that authors use to do the classifications.
The rodents include mice, squirrels and the bale (Rodentia), with 573 samples, a 34% of the collection. There are about 30 species of these mammals represented, meaning the 67% of the rodent species of the country, which are about 45.
Finally, we can find the carnivores (felines, weasels, gray foxes, raccoons and others), with 23 specimens. This constitutes between the 1 and 2% of the collection. There are 10 species represented in the collection, 45% of the carnivores of the country. Among the mammals, the 7% are some samples of other orders, where we can find bald foxes, monkeys, hoofed animals, insectivores and rabbits.
In the last few years there have been skin and fur collecting in areas of the Central Valley forests. There are representations of bat skins and mice form Palmichal and Cedral of Acosta, areas of the Protecting Area of Cerros de Escazú. People are currently working on the mammal inventory in the Iztarú School field, from the Protecting Area of Cerros de la Carpintera.
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