Y is for... Young Elephant [ABC Sundae]

The centre piece of the Hunterian Museum (especially now that the main hall is still closed for a new roof to be put in) is a skeleton of a young male Indian Elephant. The skeleton was originally acquired by the University in 1888 when the Anderson College closed its museum.

The skeleton then sat at the Zoology Museum until it was moved to the foyer of the Hunterian Museum in time for the bicentenary celebrations in 2007. The Hunterian website has a time lapse video of the skeleton’s disassembly and reassembly.

Specimen was conserved, repaired and re-articulated for show in the Entrance Gallery of the main Hunterian as part of the Bicentenary refurbishment programme in 2007.

There are actually two elephants in Glasgow’s West End, the other, Sir Roger, being just down the road at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Unlike Sir Roger, this elephant doesn’t seem to have a name, unless the the Hunterian curators have given him a name. Although, the online catalogue does list the specimen as “*Elephas indicus* J”. So… is he called “Jay”?

ABC Sundae is a fortnightly theme day, occurring every other Sunday, one letter of the alphabet at a time. Click here for more ABC Sundae.

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