Researchers start work to solve mystery of Nottingham gorilla that cost city £100

George the gorilla is a local legend but very little is known about him

A team of researchers and scientists from the University of Nottingham are trying to solve the mystery surrounding the origins of a stuffed gorilla at Wollaton Hall. ‘George’ the gorilla has been a popular resident of Nottingham’s Natural History Museum since the 19th Century, however little is known about his story.

He was one of the first stuffed gorillas brought to Western Europe and became a star attraction on the continent. The Nottingham Corporation, which preceded Nottingham City Council, purchased George for £100 in 1878 at the Paris Exhibition where he was put on display.

It’s not known where he came from before this time and the team, led by Dr Holly Miller of the Department of Classics and Archaeology, has been conducting tests to find out. “We were tasked by curators from Wollaton Hall to come and visit George and see if we could find out a bit more about him, because while he is a bit of a star of the local area and everybody knows George, we don’t actually know much about him,” Dr Miller said.

“We weren’t sure if George was one gorilla specimen. With taxidermy it’s quite normal if there are problems with the skin or individual, they will be patched with other animals, so one or two other gorillas, or potentially something else could be used to mimic gorilla skin. There were suggestions it was a goat involved in George, but as far as we can tell from looking at all of his skin he is an entire gorilla.

“It’s important we know all about our cultural history. George is a bit of an icon of the city and he is certainly an icon for this museum, he is a mascot as they say, and lots of schoolchildren know about George. So actually finding out a little bit more about him, being able to tell his story, is important.”

A small piece of skin was taken from the back of George’s ankle, alongside a few loose hairs, to analyse his ancient DNA and skin proteins, or collagens. Swabs of enamel from his teeth were also taken.

The team is part of the Nottingham Materials and Environment Science and Heritage Laboratories (N-MESH), which launched around a year ago. The money is from a £1.6m UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant.

Dr Miller, who was involved with Sir David Attenborough’s investigation of the life story of Jumbo the elephant, expects the results to come back within six weeks. “All gorillas come from equatorial Africa, so we know he is from that region somewhere,” she said.

“My understanding is he is likely to be a lowland gorilla, not a mountain gorilla, but that still leaves the question whether he is an eastern or western lowland gorilla.” Dr Sheila Wright, Curator of Natural Sciences (Biology) at the Natural History Museum, added: “Both are today classed as critically endangered due to habitat loss, poaching and other factors.

“We would like to provide some information for our visitors on the work being done to conserve these gentle and intelligent primates – which are amongst our closest living relatives. It would be nice to illustrate this with photographs of the correct species of gorilla.”