Being the first and the richest natural history museum on the Balkans, the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia studies, preserves and disseminates information about the living and non-living nature both in Bulgaria and throughout the world. The National Museum of Natural History has a history of more than one hundred and twenty years. It is one of the oldest museum in Bulgaria and the oldest and richest among the natural history museums on the Balkan Peninsula. 

     The museum exhibitions occupy 15 halls on 4 floors. It exhibits the Caroline parrot, which became extinct world-wide, the monk seal, bearded vulture, little bustard, grey and maiden crane, steppe viper, German sturgeon, all of which extinct in Bulgaria. Large mammals recently exhibited are the white rhinoceros, the Himalayan bear, cheetahs, buffalos.