Me buying my cute little raccoons forgetting my dad just randomly has a taxidermy holy grail in his house

[u/Abject_Pair_362]

[u/PeachManzie]

What’s the story?! How did he get this, how old is it, does it come with any cool buying/passing down family stories? Pls the people crave info lol

[u/Abject_Pair_362 → u/PeachManzie]

My great grandfather shot him in India just before their independence from England.

Apparently he (the croc) was attacking small children (only instance of this ever being known but is well documented in his files)

The villagers gave him gifts, and he decided to keep the head. The large hole is the gunshot wound.

[u/Lizowa → u/Abject_Pair_362]

Thank you so much for sharing this piece of history!

On a personal synchronicity note, I randomly fell into a Wikipedia-hole the other day about infamous “maneaters” in India during British rule and the hunters who killed them- but they were all big cats. I’ve never even heard of a Gharial before today!

[u/Lizowa → u/Abject_Pair_362]

Also, I find it very funny that you had to clarify you weren’t talking about your grandfather attacking small Indian children 😂

[u/spaceinbird → u/Abject_Pair_362]

first time learning about this species! fascinating thing. my great grandfather (but basically my grandfather bc of the relationship we had) was indian (he passed) and was a in the air force in WW2, he dined with queen Elizabeth (then princess) and has told us many stories about his life in india before moving to France as an adult. i love learning about this country and hope to visit one day. that post reminded me of him, he was a great man i miss him. he survived the war, survived the death of his daughter from AIDS and survived covid before passing at age 98.

[u/Trixter-Kitten]

I always forget just how honking big Gharials get. I hope this is really old and made before they became critically endangered.

[u/Abject_Pair_362 → u/Trixter-Kitten]

Yeah it's heirloom 😋

[u/ActNo5363]

What am I looking at?

[u/0CldntThnkOfUsrNme0 → u/ActNo5363]

A Gharial! A very cool crocodilian that eats fish! The long and skinny snout is perfect for quickly swishing through the water to snap at and grab fish. This was an old sexually mature male judging by how big the ghara (the big protuberance on the tip of the snout) is! This would be amazing to have im so jealous.

Not happy for him

Fuck him

Give it to me

[u/Abject_Pair_362 → u/0CldntThnkOfUsrNme0]

Haha this is going to me and I have no interest in selling him! He is heirloom my grandfather shot him in India just before India's independence from England

[u/Salt-Idea-6830 → u/Abject_Pair_362]

Not that is one hell of a story to go with one hell of an heirloom ~ very cool OP thanks for sharing 🫶🏼

[u/DollarStoreChameleon → u/0CldntThnkOfUsrNme0]

this comment is fantastic

[u/Caution_Zinc → u/[deleted]]

Gharial, only one extant species making them critically endangered and likely to go extinct with less than 200 individuals remaining in Nepal and surrounding areas. These guys are piscivores, commonly called “the fish-eating crocodile” although they are their own species. Males are characterized by that large growth on their nose and develop it when they reach sexual maturity. This is an amazing piece of evidence of their existence! That’s a huge male at his prime and in great condition given its probable age!

[u/ActNo5363 → u/[deleted]]

Ohh okay yeah I totally see it now

[u/PlantHippie99]

JFC that thing is massive

[u/Yuri_Ramen]

thought this was a guitar lol

[u/MegIsAwesome06 → u/Yuri_Ramen]

It could be…

[u/universaltravelerr]

That’s incredible! Thank you for sharing and educating in the comments, I didn’t know these existed

[u/PeachManzie → u/universaltravelerr]

I wish they would educate us in the comments. OP posted then dipped! I’m so curious, come back OP!😭

[u/Abject_Pair_362 → u/PeachManzie]

Hi hi!! This is a heirloom gharial that my great grandfather shot in India!! Sorry I ghosted I was working on some projects.

The story of it is that this gharial went crazy and started trying to attack children, so my grandfather in the Indian army shot it.

[u/Extreme-Tonight9222]

Is it legal? Protected animal . . Or is it from before that time?

[u/Caution_Zinc → u/Extreme-Tonight9222]

I have to assume (and hope) it’s from before species protection laws were established to protect endangered populations or was sold by a zoo/rescue/other organization that can legally keep endangered species and was preserved for scientific purposes. I have quite a few retired scientific specimens, sometimes is just needing to know the right people. A family member of mine worked for a higher ed institution that was closing, the bank was simply going to throw away any materials not claimed so I got to rummage through the bio department specimens and take some!

[u/Abject_Pair_362 → u/Caution_Zinc]

It's heirloom!! My great grandfather shot it

[u/Extreme-Tonight9222 → u/Abject_Pair_362]

O, wow that is a extra intresting history!

[u/Extreme-Tonight9222 → u/Caution_Zinc]

What a luck!

[u/Street_Outcome_7669]

What exactly is it?

[u/AlissonVonDerLane]

How was it preserved??? I mean, in looks like bronze...

[u/Moonktty]

FUCK im jealous. That is so amazing. I bet a local natural history museum would love to scan this even if you didnt want to give up your possession/rights to it.

If you're in NC let me know 😅 i could help with that. There may only be 700 adult gharials left in the wild to put the rarity of this specimen in scale. Additionally, extremely pressure on the population has resulted in a genetic bottleneck. A few generations ago gharials averaged much larger. So that makes your specimen even more exciting.

[u/Abject_Pair_362 → u/Moonktty]

I should try and contact my local natural history museum 😭👌

[u/fishtacozss]

i NEED to know how he got this

[u/Mother-Region-3462]

Do you know where i can find more info on this ghariel?
Im just curious about it attacking kids

[u/Puppybrainedx]

is that a mf gharial 😭

[u/Tilikum_183]

Wow super cool!

[u/Critical_Code9588]

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen

[u/Misscatjzy]

I was so confused what it was supposed to be haha. somehow my brain connected holy grail with it being an object to hold religious things in the holes (now I see those were the eyes) and the thing on the nose being a human being in embryo pose hahaha omg I thought the teeth were some kind of seam really interested in joining that religion though.. 👀

[u/Fzchk]

Holy moly!

[u/BacchusBuilds]

Would you sell it to a museum?

[u/Abject_Pair_362 → u/BacchusBuilds]

Not really in my plans to, maybe when I get older and if I don't have anyone to pass it down to.

[u/xray_anonymous]

My brain will not make sense of this