The blue whale skeleton represents the largest specimen of its kind in Canada, salvaged from Prince Edward Island in 1987.
The museum holds over 20,000 specimens in its Cowan Tetrapod Collection, including birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.
The collection includes fossilized remains that provide a deep-time perspective on the evolutionary history of the Pacific Northwest.
The Spencer Entomological Collection contains over 600,000 insect specimens, making it one of the largest in the country.
The museum building features a massive glass cube design that functions as a walk-through display of research-grade specimens.
Many of the specimens on display are used actively by university researchers for ongoing genetic and anatomical studies.
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is a natural history museum located on the University of British Columbia campus, housing over two million biological specimens. The centerpiece of the collection is a 26-meter-long blue whale skeleton suspended in the museum's glass atrium. The facility preserves the university's diverse collections of fossils, marine invertebrates, plants, birds, insects, and mammals. It is designed to foster scientific discovery through public engagement with its research-grade specimen archives. The museum operates as a central repository for biological research conducted at the university. Displays are organized systematically, providing a comprehensive look at the evolution and classification of various life forms. The glass-walled architecture allows visitors to view the collection from multiple levels and angles. Its mission focuses on biodiversity education and the preservation of natural history records for future scientific study.
The glass atrium level looking up directly at the blue whale skeleton to capture its full length against the sky.
Focus your visit on the atrium first to get the best scale perspective of the blue whale skeleton.
Check the museum website for scheduled 'discovery lab' events or curator talks which provide deeper context for the collections.
Combine your visit with a walk through the surrounding Nitobe Memorial Garden for a balanced nature experience.
Do not attempt to navigate the campus by car without checking parking zones, as the museum is tucked deep within the pedestrian-focused central academic core.
Closed on Mondays and major public holidays.
Maintain a quiet volume and refrain from touching the open-display specimens to ensure their long-term preservation.
