Zaroff calls the shipwrecked sailors that he hunts "specimens," because he doesn't consider them human men anymore. They are simply game targets to be hunted down and killed for his personal pleasure.
Let's look at the definition of "specimen."
an individual animal, plant, piece of a mineral, etc., used as an example of its species or type for scientific study or display.
That is a great definition when considering Zaroff. A human being is an animal. There are six kingdoms of classification, and humans have to fit into one of them. We are not either of the bacteria kingdoms. We are not fungi, protists, or plants either. Humans are animals. To Zaroff, a human just happens to be his favorite animal prey to hunt.
The final part of the definition is also important. A specimen is a single example of the entire species. Its purpose is either for study or display. Zaroff's trophy room has many specimens on display.
About the hall were mounted heads of many animals--lions, tigers, elephants, moose, bears; larger or more perfect specimens Rainsford had never seen.
I am a little surprised that Zaroff doesn't have a human on display, because he most definitely is not using the sailors for scientific study. The sailors are targets for him to kill and "hold up" as trophies on display. Each sailor that he holds prisoner is a specimen to Zaroff, because each human prey is representative of the larger human species that he now enjoys hunting more than anything else.
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