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Louis XIV's elephant (born around 1664 and died in 1681 at the 
Château de Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines Department of ÃŽle-de-France region in France.
The palace is owned by the government of F ...
) was a gift from the King of Portugal
This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portugal, Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution.
Thro ...
to Louis XIV
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
, King of France. It is the only African elephant
African elephants are members of the genus ''Loxodonta'' comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (''L. africana'') and the smaller African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''). Both are social herbivores with grey skin. ...
recorded in Europe between 1483 and 1862.
Life
A diplomatic gift from Portugal in 1668, this elephant was a female from the Congo.It is not known whether Alfonso VI or his successor Regent Pedro II was in power when the elephant was shipped to Versailles. The elephant, housed in the Royal Menagerie of Versailles, died 13 years later in 1681. It is known that she was fed daily with 80 pounds of bread, 12 litres of wine, a large portion of vegetable soup with bread and rice, and grass at will. In the last year of her life, she suffered muscle loss and had to be lifted onto her feet with a crane. After her death in 1681, the elephant was dissected byClaude Perrault
Claude Perrault (; 25 September 1613 – 9 October 1688) was a French physician and amateur architect, best known for his participation in the design of the east façade of the Louvre in Paris.National Museum of Natural History, France
The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the ...
, in the ''Galerie d'Anatomie comparée.''{{Cite web , last=AFP , title=Attaque à la tronçonneuse d'une éléphante de Louis XIV , url=https://www.liberation.fr/societe/2013/03/30/attaque-a-la-tronconneuse-d-une-elephante-de-louis-xiv_892555/ , access-date=2024-02-18 , website=Libération , language=fr
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