The Rwanda Zoological Collection (NZC) began as a small teaching and reference assemblage to document the country’s vertebrate and invertebrate fauna. In its early years, the collection focused on properly curated voucher specimens from routine surveys and academic field courses, establishing basic accessioning practices, specimen labels, and a catalog that linked each record to its collecting locality and method. In 2023, the scope broadened from representative vertebrates—fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals—to include major invertebrate groups collected from wetlands, forests, and agricultural landscapes. Cabinets, jars, and trays were standardized, and wet collections moved to stable ethanol. By steadily consolidating scattered teaching material into a centralized repository, the NZC created a foundational archive for identification, comparative anatomy, and baseline biodiversity assessments that could be built upon as Rwanda expanded its ecological monitoring and conservation science. Its accessibility portal is still under development.