What is the most exotic animal ever owned by the Royal family?
During the reign of George IV exotic animals could be found in Windsor Great Park, where a Royal Menagerie had first been established in the mid-eighteenth century by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. One of the inhabitants of the Royal Menagerie was the Nubian giraffe which was given to George IV by Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, in 1827. The giraffe arrived in a weakened state from Cairo at Waterloo Bridge on 11 August. The giraffe was accompanied by two Egyptian cows and two Arab keepers. By October an animal painter had been commissioned to paint the giraffe with its keepers in the special paddock created within the menagerie. The giraffe, which had never really thrived, died in the autumn of 1829.
