Great white shark

At 5.83 metres long, this great white shark is one of the largest taxidermied specimens in the world. It was caught on 13 October 1956 by a tuna fisherman in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Sète in France. The shark, a female, weighed over 2 tonnes. Its stomach contained two dolphins, each nearly 2 metres long! The shark struggled so much in the net that it died shortly after reaching the surface. At the port of Sète, it caused quite a stir.

Once at the museum, the shark was cut into pieces to be used to make plaster casts, which were then placed on an iron frame. All that remains of the original animal are the fins and teeth, except for three that were stolen and replaced with plaster casts.

According to legend, the taxidermist left a bottle of rum in the shark's stomach. But this is impossible to verify with a camera because the interior is partitioned!