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Silverback gorilla skull8/8/2023 It is likely that the majority of these animals were killed and collected illegally. In total, the Museum houses 244 gorilla specimens, of which 158 were obtained through Merfield. However, in 1935 alone Fred Merfield shipped the remains of 51 gorillas back to the UK, for the Powell-Cotton collection and for sale. Even with a special ‘scientific permit’, the maximum number of animals of any species allowed to be collected in 1930 was three. The language isn’t recorded, but it is probably from one of the local Bantu dialects spoken by the Kako and Mézimé people.īy 1930 the practice of paying Indigenous people to hunt and collect animals was made illegal under French colonial law, and gorillas were protected by game laws. The local name for the gorilla is listed by Merfield as ‘Ngili’. Only the skull was taken from this animal, so it isn’t clear whether it was hunted or if the skull was found and picked up. This gorilla skull was collected by local Kako or Mézimé people, and the collector was paid five Francs for it. To be able to collect large numbers of animals, he would offer to pay communities to hunt and bring specimens to him. Merfield had little money, and to make a living from selling animal remains as scientific specimens he needed to sell a lot of them. Merfield obtained specimens on behalf of Percy Powell-Cotton, and for other museums, universities and private collectors, during the 1930s. This skull belongs to a collection that came to the Museum through Fred Merfield, an English hunter who lived in Cameroon for many years between 1910 and the 1940s.
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