The total collection included approximately 13 million objects and was used mainly for scientific purposes.

At the Aquarium Building Artis Department organized exhibitions around the theme of human nature.

The museum was divided into three sections – Vertebrates, Invertebrates and Entomology – and two departments, Exhibitions and Biodiversity Informatics.

[1] In 2011, the collection of the Zoological Museum was merged into that of Naturalis and the National Herbarium of the Netherlands in NCB Naturalis (Dutch Centre for Biodiversity), launched on 26 January 2010.

[2] To highlight the move, the Naturalis museum has an exhibition on "Naturalia, circus animals to scientific object", in which objects from the collection of the ZMA are displayed, between 14 October 2011 and 19 August 2012.