The application of molecular genetic techniques to zoology are discussed, emphasizing that molecular genetic techniques can be used to address strictly zoological questions in such fields as sociobiology, population structure, breeding structure, species identification, and species conservation. Examples from current studies in Australian zoology are used wherever possible, many of these from work in my own laboratory, but only because of my familiarity with the work. Molecular genetic techniques have been used extensively for phylogenetic reconstruction but such applications have been reviewed elsewhere (Baverstock 1987) and are discussed here.