Gorilla (Bobby); Museum fur Naturekunde, Berlin; 10th September 2011

The famous gorilla Bobby, who lived in Berlin Zoo from 1928 until he died of appendicitis in 1935; mounted in the Natural History Museum, Berlin.

Gorilla Bobby....

There is a photo of him in life, in Lutz Heck's 'Animals -- My Adventure' which demonstrates how the taxidermist has preserved his facial features.

Although he looks like a mature animal (see FunkyGibbon's full body photo below), its probably due to being overweight for his age- he was probably only about ten years old or thereabouts at his death.

Agreed. I have several old postcards from Berlin Zoo depicting ‘Bobby’ and I’ve seen other photographs of the living ‘Bobby’ in various publications; the taxidermist did a good job of capturing his facial characteristics, the mount looks very much like him.

(Incidentally, since I took this photograph, the exhibits in the museum have been re-arranged; on subsequent visits I found it almost impossible to take a photograph of him without getting lots of reflection from the exhibits opposite.)