Descriptions

Skull of a female gorilla donated to RAMM in 1869. It is recorded as being from ‘the du Chaillu collection’. Paul Belloni Du Chaillu was an anthropologist and zoologist. He is best known for his expeditions into equatorial Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century. He confirmed the existence of gorillas for western science - previously gorillas had only been known to Europeans through skeletons and historic written accounts. Du Chaillu observed and hunted gorillas and brought back several dead specimens that he sold to the museum collections.

This object is not on display.