The vertebrate collection cared for by the Hampshire Cultural Trust contains just over 200 mammals, 30 reptile, 70 fish and 5000 bird and egg specimens. The collection contains significant specimens such as the bones from a dodo, found by George Clark, at La Mare aux Songes, Mahebourg, Mauritius, 1865 and a guillemot uria aalge, which was shot by James Edward, second Earl of Malmesbury, under the Needles, Isle of Wight in the summer of 1810.
Many of the specimens are preserved through mounted taxidermy, study skins and in spirit jars. The best specimens are those collected and preserved by Edward Hart of Christchurch, Dorset, William Chalkley of Winchester, Peter Spicer of Leamington Spa, and two London based taxidermists - Rowland Ward and John Gould.
Vertebrate specimens with good supporting data provide evidence for the occurrence of a species at a particular place and time.