So I mentioned in our previous post about Grip the Raven that I wanted to find out what had happened to George IV’s stuffed giraffe. The last thing I could find said that the giraffe was given to the Zoological Society. So…I e-mailed the Zoological Society of London to ask if they still had it. The response came back very quickly, from their archivist, that “We no longer have the stuffed giraffe.” They must get that question a lot because he was kind enough to send along an excerpt from the book The Ark in the Park by Wilfred Blunt. The book quotes from Zoological Magazine of 1833, Prof. Richard Owen, about the health of the giraffe:
A bit of the hand-colored etching by William Heath entitled “State of The Giraffe,” taken from Blunt’s book, is what accompanies this post.
The giraffe died in 1829. After it was stuffed it was given to the Society. But where the hell is it now? Does it even still exist? Did it wind up on eBay? Why the hell do I care so much? Anyway, any of our readers across the pond–if you know where George IV’s giraffe is, drop us a line, would you?
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Ah, now it’s gotten to where you can’t stop until you know. Keep us posted, you crazy bastard.
Yeah, I’ve started to let my true manic nature start to show on the site.
That, or the meds have finally lost their potency.