Abstract

Biological specimens for museum collections are acquired because they are important representatives of a species or are critical for ongoing research at an institution. These specimens must be stored in a frozen state until they can be prepared, but the rate of specimen degradation varies under different freezer conditions. If a specimen degrades too much, the types of preparation become limited and the overall quality of the prepared specimen declines. Our objective was to examine the efficacy of various techniques to preserve frozen zoological specimens. To test this, we wrapped chicken wings using various methods and stored them in five different types of freezers. We monitored the mass of the chicken wings over 8 months and documented conditions in each freezer (temperature, relative humidity, door opening frequency and duration). We found desiccation to be the main reason for mass loss from unwrapped specimens, those stored in warmer freezers, and as time in the freezer increased. Therefore, zoological specimens should be prepared soon after being acquired, and stored in plastic bags in the coldest freezer available to minimize desiccation and ensure the ability to prepare them using a variety of preparation methods.