Pidcock's Grand Menagerie at Exeter Change--Chunee the Elephant

Pidcock brought Chunee to England for display in his menagerie. The public paid to see him and his speciality was to hold a sixpence in his trunk before returning it to visitors. Sadly he was neglected and one of his tusks was rotten which made him very bad-tempered. In 1826 on one of his regular walks down the Strand, he broke loose from his leash and ran amok, killing one of his keepers.

He was quickly captured but it was decided that Chunee had become too dangerous to be on public show and a date was set for him to be put down. On March 1st 1826 his keeper tried to give the elephant a dose of poison but he refused to take it, becoming enraged and ramming the bars of his cage.

Attempts were then made to shoot him - the local Yeomanry arrived and fired a total of 152 musket balls into the poor elephant but Chunee would still not lie down. Finally, one of his keepers was obliged to finish him off with a harpoon.

The bungled execution was widely publicised and hundreds of people turned out to see Chunee's carcase being dissected by students from the Royal College of Surgeons. His skeleton was preserved at the college, where musket balls could be seen embedded in the bones. A few facts about Chunee. He weighed nearly 5 tons, stood 11 feet high and was valued at £1000. The skin which weighed 17 cwt was sold to a tanner for £50 when auctioned off; the bones weighted 876 lbs and the entire skeleton sold for £100. His claims to fame were that he had appeared in the spectacle of Blue Beard at Covent Garden and had become friendly with one Edmund Kean, whom he would fondle with his trunk for a few loaves of bread.


Above, is the flier advertising the public auction for the sale of Chunee's hide.